SEKMONS 



PREACHED IN 



MEMORIAL CHURCH, BALTIMORE, 



BY 



REV. OCTAVIUS PERINCHIEF. 



EDITED BY 

CHARLES LANMAN. 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON & CO. 
1870. 



3X 5°\ ^7 



INTRODUCTORY CORRESPONDENCE. 



Baltimore, June 15, 1870, 

My dear Sir : 

It is known to you that the Rev. Octavius Perm- 
chief became the Rector of "Memorial Church," of this 
city, last autumn. When he accepted the call, it was 
believed his health was permanently restored ; but a 
few months of ardent devotion to his duties, developed 
too plainly the unwelcome truth, that he was physically 
unequal to the work involved in his charge. The con- 
gregation, which, under his brief ministry, had largely 
increased, would gladly have made any sacrifice to re- 
tain him, under an arrangement by which his preaching 
might alone have been enjoyed. But his sense of duty 
precluded the consummation of any such arrangement ; 
hence, a separation became an inevitable result. 

Only those who have enjoyed his ministry, can real- 
ize the loss sustained by the separation. Realizing this, 
there exists on the part of our congregation, an earnest 
desire to possess, in permanent form, the treasures of 
thought and feeling, which distinguish his pulpit dis- 
courses. 

Knowing your intimate relations with Mr. Perinchief 



4 INTRODUCTORY CORRESPONDENCE. 

as a literary friend, and the fact that you edited a vol- 
ume of his Sermons, delivered in Georgetown, D. C, it 
has occurred to me, to solicit your aid in obtaining his 
consent to the publication of an edition of his Baltimore 
Sermons. By doing this, you will not only gratify a 
large number of his friends and admirers, but confer a 
lasting benefit upon all into whose hands they may 
chance to fall. I venture to hope that my suggestion 
may have your favorable consideration. 

Your obt. servant, 

John S. Reese. 

Charles Lanman, Esq., 

Etc., etc. 



Georgetown, D. C, June 25, 1870. 

My dear Sir : 

I duly received your letter, and rejoice to inform you 
that I have corresponded with Mr. Perinchief, and he 
consents to the publication of another volume of his 
Sermons. He has placed a collection in my hands, and 
a portion of them will at once be given to the printer. 
As was the case when I looked over the Georgetown 
Sermons, it has puzzled me to select, where all were 
so full of soul-saving wisdom, but I have rather given 
preference to the more practical productions. As I re- 
call the effect of his preaching, founded alone upon the 
life and death of the Infinite Redeemer, in the several 



INTRODUCTORY CORRESPONDENCE. 5 

parishes where he has labored, I can only the more 
deeply regret that, under a wise Providence, he could 
not have been blessed with an ample store of physical 
health. 

In justice to Mr. Perinchief, I ought to add, that he 
will not be able to revise the Sermons, nor examine the 
proofs, on account of his removal to the country parish 
of Bridgeport, on the river Schuylkill, so that the re- 
sponsibility of seeing them correctly printed will neces- 
sarily rest with me. But I shall do my best. I con- 
gratulate the good people of Memorial Church on the 
prospect of having a new volume of his Sermons ; and 
I can assure you that their great kindness to Mr. Per- 
inchief has taken a very firm hold upon his heart. 
With high regard, 

Yours very truly, 

Charles Lanman. 

John S. Reese, Esq., 

Baltimore, Maryland. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Spirit Elements 9 

Self-Control 25 

Training Children 37 

The Uplifting of Christ 53 

What is Prayer? 67 

The Fruits of Righteousness 82 

The Victory over Sin 94 

Truth « 108 

Perception of Truth 125 

The Trinity 138 

Providence 152 

The Prodigal Son — No. 1 167 

The Prodigal Son— No. II 182 

The Prodigal Son— No. Ill 197 

The Prodigal Son— No. IV 208 

Epiphany 222 

The Divine Love 237 

The Spirit above the Letter 253 

Renouncing the World 267 

Love acting in Faith 283 

Consecration to God 298 

The Long Hereafter 312 



SERMONS. 



THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS. 

Matthew 22 : 37, 38. — Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 
This is the first and great commandment. 

The times in which the Saviour lived, were times 
very similar to our own. Perhaps this is the same 
thing as saying that all times are very much alike. 
Still, there are times in which the world reaches certain 
special crises, and these crises bring into clearer view 
prominent resemblances. That age, like ours, was an 
age of great mental activity, and that means universal 
activity. It was an age of earnest inquiry, except 
where it was thought there was no need of inquiry, and 
that was where the power of a wise inquiry was lost — ■ 
where everything was settled, as among the Jewish 
doctors. 

Our text occurs in a chapter which brings before us 
one of those battle-days of Christ — those fearful en- 
counters in which all darkness ran point-blank against 
all light. No sooner is one charge repulsed than an- 
other begins. "When the Pharisees heard that the 



10 



SERMONS. 



Sadducecs were put to silence, they were gathered to- 
gether," entrenched behind a narrow, one-sided creed- 
confident of their own strength — trusting in the power 
of a cold, dim, misguided reason — a lawyer, a man 
versed in the letter of Scripture, asks Christ which is 
the "great commandment in the law?" The Saviour, 
quoting partly from Deuteronomy, (the lawyer's own 
law-book,) replies : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." 

I wish to take these words of our Master to-day and 
make them, by God's blessing, the occasion to us of a 
wider and deeper comprehension of our duty toward 
ourselves and toward God ; or, in other words, of a bet- 
ter understanding and use of time and this present life, 
preparatory to eternity and eternal life. 

It was no foolish question which the Jew asked, al- 
though he might have asked it foolishly : "What is the 
first and great commandment?" — What is the grand 
essential of religion ? Fully to answer that is to an- 
swer — What is God? what is man? what is life? The 
Saviour does so respond as in His wonderful wisdom to 
answer all these. The wonderfulness of the answ T er 
will appear only to those of us who have reflected much 
upon the poverty of human language in expressing any 
soul-verities. In the presence of great soul-experience 
we are struck dumb. Language is for the earth ; for 
gross and outward things. When we come to apply it 
to soul-vision, we have to use the same word for many 
different things. The thoughtless cannot get beyond 
the outward, and so the letter often killeth. The 
thoughtful only understand, because they are thought- 
ful ; because they are in the spirit, which giveth life. 



THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS. 



11 



We are all familiar with this creature we call man ; 
but perhaps, if we were asked what man is, no two of 
us would give precisely the same definition. If a being 
from another world, who knew not man, were here to- 
day seeking information, under all our answers he would 
grow confused, and perhaps conclude we did not our- 
selves know what man is. In some senses man means 
the race — then it means man and woman. Again, it 
means a human being of the male sex only. Then man 
means an animal ; he is a biped ; erect ; he laughs. 
Again, he is an intellectual, social animal — he is a neigh- 
bor, an artizan, a tradesman, a scholar. Again, man 
has a soul ; he knows there is such a thing as right and 
wrong. In short, a book could not exhaust all that is 
contained under that term " man." So with the term 
soul. What is soul ? Five thousand years have been 
trying to tell us, and we do not yet know. You per- 
ceive, anything we look upon is not a simple existence.* 
but a complex existence. Any term we use expresses, 
according to the grasp of the mind that employs it. All 
terms at first come from things outward. It is only as 
man advances he is able to attach deeper and spiritual 
meanings. Now in religious matters and for religious 
purposes, we speak of man as body and soul; or spirit 
as mortal and immortal. 

But the spirit of man like everything else is complex. 
The Saviour, in the text, gives us the three constituent 
elements of the spirit — -the three-fold function or power 
called spirit— the trinity ', which makes the spirit-unity. 
These three—" the heart, the soul, the mind" — embrace 
the perfect spirit.. They are the spirit — not any one 
merely, but all together — and these, under equal and 



12 



SERMONS. 



harmonious development, will lead us to, or produce in 
us. a true service of God, this very love which is life. 

You perceive, first of all, these three things constitute 
or characterize man. Man is an animal ; that is true, 
but not merely that, nor mainly that ; he has a nature 
in addition to that — something which lifts him out of 
the animal level into the plane of intellect, or spirit. 
Man is a loving being, or a being with heart. He is a 
being distinguishing right from wrong, or a being with 
soul. He is a reasoning being, or a being with mind. 
Now, unfortunately, we separate these elements — we 
divide the spirit, and view one part as the whole ; we 
aim at developing one part without the other ; we act 
with extreme unreason, and therefore come to disap- 
pointment. Suppose the growth of the body were left 
to an ignorant parent. The body is also a complexity. 
There is leg and arm — there is eye and ear — there are 
heart and lungs. One or other of these would appear 
supremely important, according to the view of the 
parent. Imagine the arm brought to its full develop- 
ment on the body of a babe. What woidd it be good for? 
Imagine a head of full size, to be supplied with blood 
from an infant's lungs. Do you see how every unity 
must be indeed a unity — how a failure in one part is a 
failure in every part? How there must be uniform 
growth ; or partial growth, but little better than none 
at all ? This is what we forget in religion. The spirit 
also is a unit — one part dependent upon all the rest. 
We, however, in speaking of love, connect it exclusively 
with the heart, supposing if a man exercise some sort of 
an affection toward God, he is religious, forgetting that 
the heart can only be safely and fully active, as it re- 
sponds in its proportions to soul and mind. 



THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS. 



13 



The term " heart " is used to express certain facts 
which are matters of experience. We have an affec- 
tional, emotional element within us, something that 
yearns, and clings, and endures — something which feels 
relieved in the simple exercise of feeling. In the orig- 
inal language, I think, the term is often used for con- 
sciousness — the inner self. The child feels it toward the 
parent ; the parent feels it toward the child ; it is in- 
stinctive, involuntary. Under the influences of the 
Holy Ghost, who dwells with every man, through the 
atonement of Christ, men feel this toward God, and God 
exercises it toward men. It is this which makes a re- 
ligion a fact in all lands. In the order of nature heart 
everywhere comes first. We find it in birds toward 
their young, and in lower animals where there is no 
higher instinct. We find it in uncivilized man, as in the 
Indians ; they have a sense of God and of his goodness, 
but no moral code. It is as we come up to half-civilized, 
Pagan and heathen nations we get to moral codes, and 
last of all we come to real mind in what is called civili- 
zation. So in each individual. The little child loves; 
it afterwards begins to discover between ristfit and 
wrong, and finally to think. If you say belief comes 
first, inasmuch as every nation has a belief or creed, the 
offspring of mind, I should say, no, not so much belief 
or creed as just this unquestioning acceptance of fact : 
there is a God. Just as the child accepts the parent 
and loves, asking nothing about it, or so far as it asks, 
asking only according to its general development. It 
is this heart-element out of which men feel there is a 
God ; feel He is pure and holy ; feel He ought to be 
worshiped; feel they should be pure, and holy, and 
through this in development reach the perception that 



14 



SERMONS. 



they are impure and unholy. You observe, it does not 
teach a man what is right nor what is wrong. The In- 
dian indulges revenge, and as men always do, projects 
his own being upon God, and judges Him by that, or 
ascribes that being to Him — not having mind-culture 
enough to see, that revenge in God would be impossi- 
ble. Hence creeds are always changing, and feeling is 
modified according to general culture. Heart is simply 
feeling. Left to this alone, the mother gives her child 
just what it should never have, and keeps from it just 
what it ought to have. Left to this alone, the devotee 
will throw himself beneath the wheels of a Juggernaut, 
with as much devotion as a martyr will go to the stake. 
Left to this alone, all sorts of absurdities and extrava- 
gancies are indulged in the name of religion ; all sorts 
of creeds are sustained. Sometimes in viewing life 
under these manifestations, men tell you "see what 
belief will do " what men believe but you perceive 
these things are not out of any belief. They are out 
of all real unbelief. It is abandonment of two-thirds of 
their being. It is a long arm swinging upon an infant 
body. It is a heart over which presides no brain. Still 
it is an element — it is the first element — an essential 
element of spirit. Wherever it is certainly dormant, the 
man is certainly dead. It must be awakened. It is the 
first part of the spirit to awake, but when once it is 
awakened, we should not rest content with simply that. 
Thus the object of the Gospel is not simply to convert — 
a thing we often forget, but to build man up, build the 
race up, in true God-likeness — into the full restoration 
of the God-image, once obliterated by sin. 

We must go on to the development of soul. This 
word soul, while often used as a synonym for the whole 



THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS. 



15 



spirit — heart and soul and mind — is here used as expres- 
sive of only one part, what we often distinctively call, 
the moral part of man. This function of the spirit it is 
which wills, which makes the you or the me, which 
determines what we call character, fixes our place as 
honorable or dishonorable, useful or useless — in short, 
moral or immoral. You see the spirit is a three- 
sided prism ; you never turn it round and look at the 
second side. You see, you come now to where, when 
a man claims to be religious, other men hold him up and 
ask whether his religion makes him honest. Soul is 
that faculty by which we grasp moral obligation. We 
sometimes call it the " moral sense." It distinguishes 
for us the right or the wrong. Because this is part of 
the spirit, its existence is co-extensive with heart and 
mind, but it is later in development. For the want of 
its proper culture we have so many wrong things in re- 
ligious history. It was out of the absence of this the 
Jews asked Christ, why He cured a sick woman on the 
Sabbath day. It was the absence of mind which made 
it true, that hearing they did not understand. It was 
absence of this soul which made it true, " that seeing 
they did not perceive." It is the absence of this which 
makes our religion so often more of a fear than of a joy. 
People are very often afraid to do things, the right or 
wrong of which they have no conception. A Romanist 
will not eat a piece of meat on Friday. A Jew would 
starve, and so virtually commit suicide, before he would 
eat a piece of pork, attaching right and wrong when 
right and wrong do not adhere, at the same time doing 
many wicked and cruel things, without ever reflecting 
that they are wicked or cruel. It is the absence of 
this which turns religion into superstition ; which 



1G 



SERMONS. 



makes us so constantly demand that everybody shall 
feel as we do, act as we act. It is absence of this which 
accounts for the fact, that under religious feeling or 
fervor we have inquisitions and dungeons for the best 
men that live, in our heart limiting soul and mind. It is 
the absence of this which turns enthusiasm into fanati- 
cism. Fanaticism is feeling without soul or mind, a 
ship without rudder or freight, a delusive and danger- 
ous thing. This soul, or will, or moral sense is the 
second in the order of development. You can teach 
your child to love you without much teaching, but you 
must labor diligently to enable him to distinguish be- 
tween right and wrong. But in proportion as you 
teach him that, his love, his affection, all his emotional 
being will be refined, deepened, so that the love where- 
with you love your aged parent is transcendently deep- 
er and holier than the love wherewith your little child 
loves you. 

But to cultivate this you must have the culture of a 
higher element still : you must bring in the mind. Noiv 
you know what the mind is. We sometimes call it reav 
son ; sometimes intellect. It is that faculty which pro- 
duces thought, reflection, cogitation. It is that faculty 
which goes out and asks questions of all things that are : 
Why they are? What they are? What their mutual 
relations? What their specific forces? It is this in 
your child which so often puzzles you. It is this which 
in religion, upon the principle of dividing what God has 
not divided, religious people and Christians as well, have 
been in the habit of ignoring, denouncing. In reality it 
is the grandest, if we could compare things essential, the 
grandest faculty man has. It is the controlling faculty. 
It lifts man above the child, above the savage, above 



THE SPIRITrELEMENTS. 



17 



uncivilization and half civilization. It is this, in Jesus 
Christ, — I will not say more than anything else, but 
co-equal with all the rest in Him, — against which the 
gates of darkness have not been able to prevail. It is 
this which gives us science, knowledge, all that lifts 
human life above brute life — that makes society, 
which alone is human, a blessing, and which abounds 
most, only where Jesus is ; a fact which is very natural, 
for a true cultivation of one part is a corresponding cul- 
tivation of every other part. Wherever this is not, un- 
cultured man is barbarous. Men are barbarous in pro- 
portion as it is uncultured. No religion of any high 
degree can exist without it. The Christian religion is 
the best religion, because it appeals to this — gives it its 
highest and freest exercise — demands its development. 
Our Protestant religion is the purest and best of all 
things called religion — brings all blessing, all culture — 
the highest civilization, because it gives this mind the 
greatest scope — opportunity for untrammeled action. 
I know Christians have resisted it. We can none of us 
forget the struggle all light has had. The Printing 
Press, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geology — what a strug- 
gle ! But you see it was the misfortune of the religion 
which resisted it, that it was not better. Do you see 
how we are unblessed, in proportion as any part of the 
spirit is asleep ? " Oh," we say, " those days have 
gone by. They were days of darkness." Are we in 
the full light ? The ages which resisted, while doing it 
in the very name of religion, we can now see were 
neither truly affectional nor truly moral. Zeal was with- 
out knowledge and morals were everywhere debased — 
a clear illustration in itself that we are well off only in 
proportion as the spirit is evenly and co-extensively 



18 



SERMONS. 



developed. It must then begin to appear to you, why 
Jesus lays such emphasis here. This love — such love — 
is the first and great commandment. 
• Now we have spoken of these faculties as separate — 
as having an order. This is merely by accommodation. 
The lines which limit the zones upon our earth, do not 
divide the earth. They are only imaginary. So with 
these distinctions we have made this morning. Most 
men put mind-culture as the lowest thing in religion. 
I put it as the absolutely highest thing in religion ; or 
rather, it is folly to put it highest or lowest. It is co- 
equal. Neglect heart and you have atheism. Neglect 
soul and you have wrong and vice. Neglect mind and 
you have Rome. Neglect one or the other, and you 
lose so much of Christ. I know the illiterate believer 
is better off than the gifted unbeliever. And what a 
blessing it is that the child and the peasant can come to 
Christ. But is it better to be all children and all peas- 
ants, or always children and always peasants? This 
mind is the last to reach a high development. It is only 
now that this race is learning truly to think. It is not 
the boy, but the mature man who knows how to think. 
But I say we err in making these distinctions. Our 
part can only grow as every other part grows, and 
wherever you find a highly developed religious charac- 
ter — I mean a character which stands the analysis of 
time — you find all three of them together. Take Moses, 
a man of profound feeling, the author of a moral code 
which has challenged the admiration of the ages — a man 
of stupendous intellect. Take David, and Daniel, and 
Elijah — all the prophets and seers. These three things 
must stand combined, and do stand combined and co- 
equal. Then an intellect, without morals and a warm, 



THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS. 



19 



emotional, affectional nature, — in other words, a mind 
without soul and heart, is a cold, repulsive thing, with 
two-thirds of itself paralyzed. A moral man, without 
affection, gratitude, humility, and without brains, is the 
most disgusting and helpless being in the universe. A 
heart, without soul and mind, is a ranting, and tearing, 
and destructive engine, beating the air — narrow in all 
its aims and thoughts — re-acting, perhaps more than any 
thing else, upon the merely moral man and the merely 
intellectual man, and so producing what we call infidel- 
ity. Heart and soul and mind must go together, and 
then you get a being noble, exalted ; a creature such 
as God loves and a creature who will love God. You 
get from any one only as it is aided by all the rest. It 
is the even activity of all three of these spirit-elements 
which alone makes Wisdom, a word often used, espec- 
ially in the Bible, for religion. These three things will 
give us true belief, true worship, and true life. We 
shall be happy because wise, and happy and wise be- 
cause truly religious. We shall discharge our duty to- 
ward God and toward man, and that is the sum of the 
law and the prophets. It is these rallying around God, 
striving for the good, that make love, and these three, 
loving, that make religion. In them is no end of all 
true blessing. 

Now, I shall not say that a man who has only reli- 
gious fervor is not better off than he who is indifferent 
to all religion. I shall not say that a moral man is 
worse than an immoral man. I shall not say that a 
man with mind-culture is worse than an ignorant man. 
Not at all. I thank God when I find a man cultured 
in either, and I feel ashamed when I find a man more 
cultured in either than I am myself. But I say this : if 



20 



SERMONS. 



man can be a good Christian, with little or no mind- 
culture, he can be a great deal better Christian with 
mind-culture. A ship saved without her rudder is a 
good deal better than a ship sunk ; but a ship saved 
with her rudder is not only saved, but she is a ship. A 
man of much heart, but of low morals and no mind- 
culture, may and will enjoy God. He will find much he 
can appropriate in God's blessed word. But there will 
be a thousand precious things in that word he cannot 
see. " With what measure ye mete it shall be measured 
to you again." All I contend for is the three together. 
As they are mutually dependent, so they are mutually 
helpful. The man with religious fervor will have higher 
morals and more mind than he would have had without 
religious fervor; but let him have all three, and he is 
truly a Christian. 

I bring these thoughts to you to-day, brethren, be- 
cause I feel, after much observation and deliberation, 
that the Church is making now substantially the same 
mistake she has so constantly made, in spite of all Christ 
was, of all He did, of all He said. We are making the 
mistake of dealing with, and cultivating only the heart, 
stimulating mere feeling, creating only emotion, which 
may be as often unwise as wise, from the simple fact 
that we do aim only at that. This mistake has two 
general consequences — consequences extremely disas- 
trous — first, of placing religion in apparent antagonism 
to science and all pure thought, which is a sin, and com- 
mitted with the same feeling that inaugurated and sus- 
tained the Inquisition, — men sincere enough, but as 
unwise as they were sincere ; and second, of considering 
morals a matter of secondary importance. Two lines of 
absolute facts grew out of these consequences — first, that 



THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS. 



21 



many moral and mind-cultured men are over upon the 
side of infidelity — i. e., so far as they are not upon the 
side of the Church ; and second, the general tone of 
morals even in the Christian Church — if not extremely 
low — is far from being as high as it should be. The 
pauper and vicious classes of society are increasing, 
giving rise to problems we know not how to solve. 
Yes! this mistake has other consequences. By aiming 
at the heart, as the whole spirit of man, much of our 
effort is thrown away, being too high for the apprecia- 
tion of the masses, they needing help like that the 
Saviour gave the Samaritan leper, before they can come 
back and drink in the deeper and diviner things of God. 
This mistake shuts us out from many fields of labor — 
many questions of moral and social science — in isolated, 
technically religious exertion, where wide and united 
benevolent and truly Christian enterprise would produce 
wider and happier results. Another consequence still 
is, that by aiming at what we call the heart, exclusively. 
Christian preaching is reduced almost exclusively to 
what we call exhortation, to what appears to many, a 
doleful monotony of thought, or want of thought, often 
an invitation of feeling, rather than feeling itself- -an 
artificial sentiment, if a sentiment at all. A wide range 
of grand and highly useful subjects is kept from our 
pulpits, and multitudes of cultivated men and women 
are kept from our churches, giving rise to all sorts of 
ecclesiastic questions, because to extreme ecclesiastic 
practices, ritualism itself being only an attempt of anx- 
ious and otherwise good men to bring people to what 
they call the worship of God, forgetting that while they 
do it they may be crushing out two-thirds of their being. 
But I bring these thoughts to you to-day because I 



22 



SERMONS. 



believe the Christian Church is now entering upon a 
struggle, harder than any she has ever encountered. 
The struggle will be fierce to the Church, not so much 
from the strength outside as from the apathy and weak- 
ness inside. The battles of God have never been fought 
with mere feeling. Excitement produced the crusades, 
but the crusades were mere excitement. The Christians, 
in the first battles of Christianity, had merely the asser- 
tion of facts for their work. It is true, they were 
amazing facts — facts that created morals and mind — 
facts of which morals and mind were the great defences. 
The struggles since, have been each after its kind, till 
we come now to where the facts themselves are to be 
explained, not merely asserted — where they are to be 
applied, not to mere individuals, but to man in the mass, 
to the multitudes for whom God intended them. The 
struggle is outside the Church, not so much against old 
truths as against old dead forms, against ceremony, the 
make-believe truth. Indeed, the world is rather asking 
for more truth — a livelier application of all truth. 
Because so many in the Church rest upon their forms, 
they think if the forms go, religion is gone, and when 
the forms do go, many lose the faith they thought they 
had. From them that had not is taken away what they 
seemed to have. In England the struggle at present is 
worse than it is with us. But here it is already thick- 
ening. Unhappily we stand so divided, each with some 
little ism of his own, no part of the real faith, and really 
a trifle at last. So occupied are we with this, that light 
passes us by, or if it is arrested by us at all, it is arrested 
by us in complaint. We often resist what we ought to 
attract, and attract what ought to be repelled. Thus 
we are defeating our own object, and the Church hinders 



THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS. 



2B 



what the Church was designed to promote. We do not 
need anything new, except it be a renewed understand- 
ing of all that is old. There is our weakness. We 
want a stronger grasp of the truths of Christ, and when 
I speak to you about mind-culture, as I do, I do not 
mean a power of hair-splitting argument — a knowledge 
of all the philosophies — an elaboration of tiresome doc- 
trine — an assertion of dogma. Not at all. That is not 
the tendency of our times, nor would it be desirable 
even if it were. As I have shown you, a religion which 
is philosophical is not religion; but so also a religion 
which is tmphilosophical is not religion. What I mean 
by mind-culture is power to think — meditation — cogita- 
tion — power to combine, eliminate, and harmonize — 
power to harmonize one part of Scripture with another — 
power to separate small and trivial things from eternal 
and essential things — power to receive a new thought. 
What I contend for, is just this that Christ tells us, the 
loving God with all the heart and all the soul and all the 
mind. What I complain of is, that with a great deal of 
Christian fervor, the world forces its morals upon the 
Church rather than that the Church imposes high Chris- 
tian morals upon the world ; with a great deal of reli- 
gious fervor there is a great deal of mind-unculture — a 
great deal of wasted time — of wasted talent — of dwarfed 
manhood. The Bible is rich in precious thought — 
Jesus is infinite in far-reaching truth, which is hidden 
from our eyes. 

We live upon the- surface. Christians support more 
trifles than any class of people. What I would impress 
upon you is, that your spirit is a unit. It is heart and 
soul and mind, and if you are dwarfed in one you are 
dwarfed in all. You may have no time for thinking — 



24 SERMONS. 

you may have neglected it so long as not to know how 
to think — then I would say to you, as Jesus says to us 
all, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul." You think that applies 
to sinners — oh, my brother, it applies to you — it applies 
to me. You cannot waste one hour, nor one day, nor 
one faculty God has given you, except as you are to 
answer for it at the bar of the eternal. You think I 
make salvation hard ; but did any wise man ever make 
it otherwise ? Do I not make it just what Jesus made 
it? Let me exhort you, brethren, to dwell more with 
Jesus. There is our fault, we do not live enough with 
Him. You that are young — you that are old, especially 
— think of these words : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy mind." Ask what they mean ? They are the 
first and great commandment. Around it all truth re- 
volves—upon it depends all safety. Study it and prac- 
tice it as you would be an heir of God and a joint heir 
with Christ — as you would comprehend with all saints 
what is the breadth and depth and length and height — 
as you would know the love of Christ which passeth 
knowledge — as you would be filled with all the fullness 
of God. " 



SELF-CONTROL. 



25 



SELF-CONTROL. 

Romans 12: 18. — If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably 
with all men. 

Outside the Sermon upon the Mount, it would be 
difficult to find a collection of wiser, practical precepts 
than those contained within this part of St. Paul's Epis- 
tle to the Romans. To combine them in one character 
would be to create a character of exalted excellence — 
to make a noble Christian manifestation. It is a chap- 
ter worthy of its place — running through these Sundays 
of the Epiphany. In all Paul's reasoning he never 
forgets that we are creatures who have to deal with 
common life in an ugly world. Man is not more an 
individual than he is a being for society. Indeed, the 
value of a man's individuality is determined by his so- 
cial relations. The man in the combinations of family, 
neighborhood, commerce, expresses his manhood. Do- 
mestic, social, and civil relations are the tests of his 
courage, his honor, his humanity. But for these rela- 
tions the nobler qualities could hardly find expression — 
the finer qualities of mercy, sympathy, benevolence, 
could not exist. But for them wisdom could not exist, 
for wisdom is not what a man knows, nor what he 
thinks, but what he does, and what he is. The hermit 
who never speaks, nor is spoken to, does not know 
whether he has a good disposition or a bad one. The 
man who never had a trust committed to him does not 
know whether he is honest or not. The shoulder that 



2G 



SERMONS. 



never carried a burden is very likely, for that simple 
reason, to be a weak one. It is a true saying that no- 
body knows what he will do till he is tried. That we 
may all have some knowledge of ourselves, God has set 
us down in a world where trial is inevitable. This is 
the meaning of life. We may talk as we please about 
crosses and sorrows and troubles ; it would be impossi- 
ble to attain to the very idea of the thing we call virtue 
without them. In their absence, virtue itself would be 
unattainable. If there were no storms and no fogs and 
icebergs, a boy could take a Cunarder across the ocean. 
If there were no sickness, the science of medicine and 
the skill of the physician would be unknown. If houses 
never burnt down, and robbers never came, and all men 
were honest and honorable, some of us could be more 
successful in business. If all men were purely patri- 
otic — if there were no such thing as faction, no men 
who preyed upon the vitals of the community, muni- 
cipal and civil government would be easy. If there 
were no such things as cold and hunger and ignorance, 
we should want no houses and clothes and food and fuel 
and books. But, then, it would be difficult to tell what 
would be left of life, or what that life which was left 
would be worth. Idleness would be as good as indus- 
try, and ignorance as knowledge. The truth is, nature 
is built upon paradoxes. Order is the resultant of re- 
sisting forces. Any fixed point is the center of antag- 
onisms. There may be a preference of agencies, but 
God puts all agencies to some use. 

As a social and moral being, in a world of antag- 
onisms, there is a sense in which man cannot, and ought 
not, if he could, live peaceably with all men. There is 
such a thing as ignorance. There is such a thing as 



SELF-CONTROL. 



27 



error. There is such a thing as vice and wickedness. 
They each have their high priests— their sleepless advo- 
cates. They are aggressive. Their aggression is worse 
than a pestilence. To give over a struggle against them 
is to give over self-existence. Moral life is granted only 
on condition that we struggle for it. We can make no 
treaty with ignorance and error. Vice and wickedness 
in reality do not expect it of us. They instinctively 
know and bow to the supremacy of right and virtue. 
The devils that confronted the Saviour always instantly 
recognized Him, and His authority. The evil spirits 
will always make great outcry: "Why art Thou come 
hither to torment us ?" But they never expect compro- 
mise or toleration; they know they ought to be tor- 
mented. Wherever we stop to parley with them they 
are themselves surprised. But once stop, and they are 
insatiable as death. They lay hold of every advantage 
and become clamorous. There are vices in our cities — 
wickednesses organized, which are amazed that they 
can exist ; and yet, because we have allowed them to 
exist, they actually get to talking of their rights — think 
they have a right to be. 

But possibly all vice and wickedness are only ex- 
treme degrees of ignorance and error. It is ignorance 
and error which are forever craving indulgence. They 
are determined not to be dispossessed. To point a 
finger at them, to raise even a flaw of suspicion against 
them, is to create enmity and strife. If you wish to 
get an enemy, you have only to strive nobly to do a 
man a moral good. If you wish to get an enemy try to 
do your duty. If you wish to raise a cry try to pull 
errors out of people. Men dwell in ignorance and error, 
like the Barons of the middle ages in their castles. 



28 SERMONS, 

They have their host of retainers. If they sally forth 
it is to war. But they are in the way of civilization. 
Their existence is disintegration, decay, the paralysis 
of all good. They must be resisted. The serpent-head 
must be bruised. But, then, he who bruises it will be 
bitten. Only nobleness and piety and all virtue will 
undertake it. But that is the test of nobleness and vir- 
tue and piety that it should — that it does. The fact 
that a man has enemies is therefore no evidence that he 
is a bad man. It is presumptive evidence sometimes of 
the very reverse. The noblest men have fallen victims 
to mortal rage. Wicked and' cruel hands crucified the 
Son of God. It was impossible that He should live 
peaceably with such men. His conflict He left behind 
Him, and this is what He meant when He said He had 
come to send not peace but a sword. Plainly, there- 
fore, in the nature of things it is impossible to live 
peaceably with all men. The only thing to be sure of, 
is, on which side you are. You can always tell which 
side you are on, by ascertaining whether you are acting 
like Christ, and being treated as He was — or whether 
you are being treated like the Jews, and acting as they 
did. 

My impression is, however, this is not exactly the 
ground the Apostle meant to cover in this text. When 
he says, " If it be possible, as much as lieth in you," I 
think he means that we should look mwardly rather 
than owtfwardly — more to ourselves than to others — that 
more is possible than we are apt to imagine. Even ad- 
mitting that there are cross and ill-natured people — for 
beyond all doubt there are— there are people who seem 
to have been created for no other purpose than to create 
strife — people whose constituent elements seem to be 



SELF-CONTROL. 



29 



wormwood, and pepper and vinegar, whose eye and ear 
are eager for deformity and discord— whose tongue is 
sharper than a two-edged sword. There are persons so 
selfish they exact absolute deference to their whims and 
ill tempers — people who never consider either the com- 
forts or the rights of others — people to whom modesty 
and generosity and self-denial are unknown. They 
spoil all they touch— people saddled upon you. They 
will neither leave nor reform. The fly in all your oint- 
ment. They make any association or organization un- 
comfortable. The smaller the orbit in which they move 
the more fearfully they burn. They make village life 
anything but the poetic and elysian thing we read of. 
They make the family circle, sometimes, anything but a 
reflection of Heaven. But even admitting this, it does 
not follow that they are unmitigated evils. Within the 
sphere of social and domestic life — within the domain 
of feeling and disposition, the sour and morbid and sel- 
fish are not unfrequently extremely useful. They do a 
great many things nobody else would do, and things that 
need to be done. They are like burrs, the rough exte- 
rior of desirable things. In our common every day life 
there are things superlatively precious — things like 
order and decorum and morality — things embraced un- 
der the head of proprieties, relative to which we can 
make no law, except so far as society is a law to itself. 
In village life, in all our communities in fact, there are 
persons who constitute themselves the censors and guar- 
dians of public morals, and it is a great blessing that 
they do. There is such a thing as reputation for old 
and young. There is a sensitiveness and solicitude rel- 
ative to our reputation divinely implanted within us. 
There is and ought to be a moral standard for all so- 



30 



SERMONS. 



ciety, and that standard should be high and rigid, and 
the man or woman indifferent to it is from that fact 
unfit for a pure Society. Society is always greater than 
any man or any woman. It has its interests, its rights, 
and it is the duty of every man who would be protected 
by society to see that society is protected. It is a great 
mistake to imagine that what our neighbor does, or 
allows to be done, is none of our business. Example is 
fearfully contagious, and its virus is fearfully fatal. 
Youth and inexperience cannot reason, and what is lib- 
erty to your child is license to mine — and a decay of 
manners is not unfrequently a decay of life. It is well 
enough for people, and they are generally young people 
who do it, to boast of independence, and shout defiance 
to public sentiment, but public sentiment is always big- 
ger than any man or woman at last. It is not to be re- 
sisted. To defy it is like defying the yellow fever, or 
a miasma. It has us in spite of all defiance. Many a 
young man and many a young woman has suddenly 
waked up to the idea that their reputation was gone. 
What a strange thing that thing reputation is, a nothing, 
and yet a fortune cannot buy it, rather to be chosen 
than great riches, a stain, a flaw destroys it. Once gone, 
the victim is like the leper, branded, avoided, expelled 
from the haunts of rectitude and virtue. Fearful is the 
vengeance of society. It is all well enough to talk of 
the inhumanity of man toward man, and especially of 
the cruelty of woman toward woman, but it would be 
hard to tell how it can be helped. It is not so much a 
voluntary action as one of the vital forces of society. 
It is instinctive, inevitable. It is the instinct of self- 
preservation — better than any enactment of the civil 
code. Very valuable things are all its police agencies — 



SELF-CONTROL 



31 



the eye that detects the first erring steps — the tongue 
that sounds out the note of alarm. Such eyes and such 
tongues are incorruptible. They are susceptible of no 
bribe. It is true, their office is not to be coveted. I 
do not say they are the wisest or the best people in the 
world, but they are not to be despised. The thing is 
to live above them in the true sense of the word — to 
live so they cannot reach you, and have no occasion to 
reach you. If they get hold of you it is your own 
fault. If you are honest and sober and keep good 
hours you have no dread of the police. They are a 
terror only to evil doers. 

The thought then, is. that the sources of disturbance 
are not necessarily in others — not always where they 
seem to us to be. Thus, the reason why people hear 
unpleasant things said of them, is, very often, because 
the things are true. Our friends generally are very con- 
siderate, altogether too considerate — they do not wound 
our feelings by harsh announcements. Our enemies are 
not always blind — not always very bad, either. The 
worst thing about them sometimes is their unpleasant 
way of telling the truth, and then it is not always that 
they are unpleasant, so much as the truth they tell. If 
you have a deformity anywhere it is the first thing they 
see — the first thing they talk about. But then, if you 
do have a deformity anywhere, nobody is more inter- 
ested in finding it out than you are yourself. They 
take your photograph, and I think that photographs are, 
generally, very unsatisfactory and disappointing things. 
But the moral effect of a photograph is good. It makes 
us feel humble. We cannot quarrel with it. There it 
is — there is no disputing it — it is ours. It is true, we 
never get two alike. We cannot appear always all we 



32 



SERMONS. 



are. There is ever a crushing possibility left us, that 
we have something better in reserve — something that 
never can be taken — something that nobody ever sees. 
But our enemies are often only so many camera obscuras, 
to show us how, at least, it is possible for others to see 
us. You recollect the prayer of the poet Burns : 

" O wad some Power the giftie gie us, 
. To see oursels as others see us :" 

I think our enemies are that power. We are very un- 
wise in keeping away from them, or at any rate in not 
. reflecting on what they say. We cannot improve our 
faces, but we can improve our characters., and a wise 
man learns as much from his enemies as from his friends. 
But it takes a wise man to do it — a strong, brave man — 
and so St. Paul says, " as much as lieth in your Yes, 
that is always the measure of your peace and of your 
peaceableness — " as much as lieth in your Society is 
unhappy, never in our strength, but always in our 
weaknesses. Some men are never at peace, and never 
will be. There is no peace-culture in them. Their no- 
tions of honor, their ideas, or want of ideas, respecting 
a true manliness, will keep them in a perpetual broil. 
They have neither the courage nor the strength, under 
provocation, to keep their tongue still. It requires a 
great deal more courage not to strike a man, than it 
does to strike him. Only a real and true man knows 
he cannot possibly be insulted. Once, in debating a 
matter of vital importance to the State, Aristides, I 
think it was, was smitten by his opponent in the face. 
Without anger, his instant and only reply was : " Smite 
me, but hear me." All ages have said that man was a 
man. What could he have been who could smite such 
a man as Aristides ? Who but such a man could think 



SELF-CONTROL. 



33 



that violence was argument ? Most of us allow other 
men to be the measure of our manliness. We go 
down to their level. Perhaps that is only apparent. 
That is the point. No man does go down. If you quar- 
rel with anybody, you are both alike. If a man is on 
any level, he is on none but his. It is the emergency 
which defines the level to which he belongs. At any 
point a man will always do his best. I do not mean to 
say, that in the heat of excitement, or under embarrass- 
ment, a man will not do a thing his judgment condemns. 
But if he does, even that will not long disturb the peace, 
for such a man will know how to undo his act, and he is 
not afraid to undo it. It takes a brave man to make 
an apology, especially to a man he would disdain to set 
with the dogs of his flock, but a brave man will do it. 
You see, " as much as lieth in you' is all the peace pos- 
sible for you. If it be possible, be strong enough for all 
men. You will be wonderfully strong if you are. But 
I think the thing is possible. I think there is an at- 
tainable point from which we can look upon the very 
meanest man as a natural phenomenon, and it is very 
interesting to do it. There is a point from which one 
man can study another, even under provocation, as dis- 
passionately as a botanist would study a new plant, or 
an entomologist a rare bug. If some men knew the 
complacency with which they were regarded, that very 
complacency, more than any other thing would make 
them rare. It requires great self-possession to do it. 
But if you betray the complacency, in any degree, either 
in word or deed, you spoil it all. The moment it is be- 
trayed it is not complacency — it is only anger. Steam 
in a boiler is as transparent as air ; you cannot see it ; 
it is strength. Let it out ; then you see it, but it is no 



34 



SERMONS. 



longer steam — it is only fog. The complacency which 
is heavenly, merges into pity ; it begets the desire to 
bless, and turns hatred into love. 

I take it that the whole object of this life is to make 
us wise. Everything in this economy has its mission. 
For this reason, while we are not to be heedless of all 
our enemies say, we are not to suppose their judgment 
infallible. No. We have a wonderful way of misun- 
derstanding each other, even where we are not enemies. 
If you say one thing, somebody will say you said an- 
other. We are sent on many fruitless errands every 
day from the simple incapacity of men to understand us. 
If you are sincere and say only what you feel, some- 
body will say you are reserved and cold and unsocial. 
If you are firm in your character, somebody will say you 
are obstinate. If you are honest, somebody will say 
you are mean. The object of this life is to make you 
thoughtful ; to make you define life ; to lift you up to 
whatever is truly strong and pure and divine ; to self- 
consciousness. See to it that all contingencies produce 
that effect. 

Then your nobleness, if you can attain to it, is one 
way, not only to prevent, but to cure strife. The best 
way always is, at any cost, to yield to exaction. Of 
course business must be governed by business laws, but 
in the social circle, in any circle of mere association or 
organization, let the mean have their own way. Show 
them how mean they are. Refer to them. Consult 
them. Take off your hat to them. Let them see that 
everything yields to their selfishness. If they are hu- 
man they will sooner or later feel the emotions of shame. 
The sunshine will melt the ice if there is only enough 
of it. You will sooner or later reach the heart. There 



SELF-CONTROL. 



5b 



may be very little of it to reach, but that is the only 
way to reach what there is, and to make it more. That, 
too, is the Christian law. If he hunger feed him — feed 
him according to his craving. By and by, he will de- 
spise himself more than you despise him. 

One of the most touching features in the life of Christ 
is the fact, He let men treat Him as they pleased. He 
resisted not, nor reviled. " As a sheep before her 
shearers was dumb, so He opened not His mouth." 
The effect was two-fold. It showed the dignity and 
strength that were in Him, and the meanness that was 
in us. Yes, it was three-fold. It ended the strife. You 
observe — to retaliate in kind, is to put fuel in a fire. 
Not to retaliate at all, is to let the fire go out forever. 
It takes two always to make a quarrel. Christ's 
quarrel with this world was the only one that was 
wholly one-sided. It was no quarrel. We demon- 
strated our sin. He. His divine, exhaustless love. He 
showed us how to end all strife — by standing like a 
rock, around which beat the waves as they will. They 
must eventually, exhausted, subside. This I take to 
be the law of Heaven. We read that there is no strife 
there, no sighs, nor tears, nor any more woe. You see 
the reason why. There is nobody to make strife ; and 
if there should be, each soul is strong enough to end it. 

Thus the text is an exhortation to us — to self- 
culture. But if it exhort us to so much self-culture as 
shall turn the enmities of life into streams of blessing — 
to so much self-culture as shall enable us profitably to 
resist — what shall we say of it as an exhortation to that 
self-culture which shall make us agencies that nobody 
wants to resist ? those positive agents which shall dis- 
pense everywhere only peace ? There is no time to 



86 



SERMONS. 



dwell upon that. But there comes before me those 
possibilities in life, in which, without intention to of- 
fend, offences spring from ignorance and inexperi- 
ence — grave offences in which sometimes our whole 
lives seem wrecked, which bring shadows across our 
hopes, acts never to be obliterated ; but when, after all, 
forgiveness can mitigate and heal — where if the garden 
cannot be again, there need not be a desert — where a 
heart, big with Christian generosity, cannot only half 
redeem, but turn apparent evil into sources of eternal 
good. Then come before me those spirits we some- 
times have in our homes — patient, noiseless, thoughtful. 
Those saints not down in the calendar, but the only real 
saints in which we believe. Then come before me those 
men and women — whose feet are always plodding — 
whose hands are always working — whose hearts are al- 
ways throbbing in labors of love ; those peace-makers, 
who shall be called the children of God. These and 
others — but we must put them off for another time. 
Only let us so live, that we shall not only pull out the 
thorns from life, but smooth the road and make it 
broader and easier for all who journey with us, follow- 
ing Him, whose disciples we are, and whose very name, 
so full of promise for earth, and so full of hope for 
Heaven, we cherish and revere as "the Prince of 
Peace." 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 



37 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 

Proverbs 22 : 6. — Train up a child in the way he should go, and when 
he is old he will not depart from it. 

Sometimes these proverbs of Solomon appear de- 
tached and isolated. Sometimes again they gather in 
clusters around a particular thought. In this imme- 
diate locality, the wise man is making observations 
upon life in certain of its social aspects. He notices a 
line of facts and he condenses, to a single expression, 
the principle which produces those facts. This is to be 
a prophet, or teacher, to see the original principle of 
things and reveal it to others. This is wisdom, to ac- 
cept the principle and weave it into the fabric of real 
life. The great hope for man is, that he will one day 
see all principles and put them into practice. The mil- 
lenium will come when the race is wise, and not before. 
The more truly wise any man becomes, by so much he 
is truly a benefactor to himself and his race. He helps 
us on to the day of promised peace and rest. 

The evils and misfortunes which afflict mankind are 
the resultants of unlawful action — i. e., action in ignor- 
ance of, and in violation of natural principles. This as- 
sertion of Solomon's has a great fact and law underly- 
ing it, which perhaps more than any other we have 
ignored. It suggests the attestation which God set to 
all His works in the beginning. " Behold it was very 
good." In the very nature of things it must be that 



38 



SERMONS. 



Grod could not make a mistake in His creation. If He 
made all things else to subserve a purpose and meet its 
destiny, most certainly would he not have made man, 
the highest of all, to defeat all purpose, and be alone a 
curse for all time. In his original organism — in the fun- 
damental laws of his being — it must be that man is as 
good as all things else. He needs only wise develop- 
ment. 

But in point of actual fact, when we turn to our ob- 
servations and experiences, we find man, we might 
almost say, alone, but certainly more than any other 
creature, at variance with highest good. This also is 
the resultant of a law. To all other creatures attached 
only what we might call a mechanical being. To man 
alone attached a moral being — i. e., a being not only 
capable of knowledge and wisdom, but a being whose 
real life was in proportion to his knowledge and wisdom. 
Man alone had the power of combining laws, not crea- 
ting or changing, but combining, or of setting laws to 
acting and re-acting upon each other artificially, so to 
speak. It was a fearful power. It was like placing a 
child in a magazine with a lighted match in his hand. 
The very first thing he would do, would be very likely 
to be a wrong one. And yet only by such a process 
could there be such a thing as moral force, merit, moral 
glory — -the highest glory known to us. Only by such 
a process could there have been the brighter and higher 
half of the universe. We have the pledge of this, in 
the very nature of God. If there had been any other 
way, or if it had been better that this way should not 
be, infinite wisdom would have known it, and infinite 
love would have done that which was best. Infinite 
love did do what was best, and man was. All questions 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 



39 



respecting the justice or mercy or wisdom of that, or of 
any fact in nature, are very unwise. I say respecting 
any fact in nature. If it be &fact y it of necessity is 
just, merciful and wise. If a glass ball be red, elastic 
and round — L e. 9 if all those facts combine in a glass 
ball, then of necessity redness cannot be opposed to 
elasticity, nor elasticity to roundness. We have only to 
he sure of a fact. Our duty is not to ask why some fact 
could not have been some other fact, but to see whether 
we understand the assumed fact and harmonize it with 
facts certainly known. When we therefore contemplate 
the fact that man is a transgressor, all questions as to 
who is to blame, whose fault it is, are worse than use- 
less. It is no use for a child to ask why the product 
of two factors in multiplication cannot be any number 
it pleases at random to set down, because such a pro- 
duct is so much easier. If it could be any random 
number, then there could be no multiplication. The 
child's wisdom is to study laws, and produce the right. 
True being for man is to find God and obey Him. 

Man of all beings had a problem to solve — a problem 
pervaded by law. His first act was to ignore the law, 
and that threw him into discord with all being, and into 
strife with himself. In his fall man created nothing 
and changed nothing. . God was the same and nature 
was the same, even man's own nature. The fall ivas 
the application of a force to a purpose not contemplated in 
the force — the attempt to make lawLEsmess as good as 
lawFULness. That is what the fall still is — that is what 
sin now is, and it matters not in what plane you find 
it, even in the religious plane itself. It is then you 
strike the difference between wisdom and unwisdom, 
between the saved and the lost. The being nearest to 



40 



SERMONS. 



God is the being having most knowledge of divine things, 
and most obedient thereto. The being furthest from God 
is the being who thinks any way in which he pleases to 
live is as good as God's way — the being in greatest 
transgression. Now, this way of God, this way of right, 
is a way of study, of tuition, a way to be learned, and, 
thank God, a way once learned, capable of being taught. 
There is at once the duty and the destiny of the race, 
growth, not a way that our theologies or dogmas can 
make right, but a way that is right, a way to be learned. 
The original basis of our nature, the laws as God made 
them being good, reason would teach us that real in- 
struction and wise training would result in good. As 
matter of observation and experience, we know that 
much sin is the result of ignorance, and much more sin 
the result of habit. From observation and experience 
we deduce the law, that the goodness or badness in us 
is the use or abuse of nature's endowments. We de- 
duce also the fact, that nature once trained or left un- 
trained is hard to change. Hence Solomon derived the 
thought, and we are able to see its force. "Train up a 
child in the way he should go, and when he is old he 
will not depart from it." 

And this is neither new in Solomon, nor peculiar to 
our religion. The Romans had a maxim : " The child 
is father of the man." Given the conditions and belong- 
ings of childhood, and you can forecast the capacities 
and destinies of manhood. Every mature life is simply 
a resultant. Every man and every woman is simply 
the net product of educational forces. The degree to 
which this fact is ignored is one of the most astonishing 
things in life. We bewail human infirmity and degra- 
dation, but we nowhere seem to be in earnest about 



TRAINING CHILDREN, 



41 



preventing it. Our religious doctrines have made us blind 
to some of God's most palpable laws. A colt we know 
must be trained, and his future value depends upon his 
training. We have laws even for the protection and 
multiplication of the fishes in our rivers ; but children, 
the most precious freightage our world carries, are left 
to partial and sporadic endeavors, multitudes of them 
being worth not so much as the calves of the stall, or 
the sheep for the shambles. 

Hence the fearful dilution of all our civilizing agen- 
cies ; for every community is simply the net product of 
all its educational forces put together. Since every com- 
munity or nationality is a unit in itself, in spite of our- 
selves, members one of another, the diseased parts are 
but a discount, or tax upon the healthy parts. Every 
diseased globule of blood in your body is only so much 
tax upon the globules not diseased — multiply them, and 
the question of health, and even of life, for you is easily 
solved. Educational forces are of two kinds, positive 
and negative ; or, a better expression would be, that 
there is everywhere either a proper force or the absence 
of a proper force ; but where a wise force is not applied 
to give direction to development, it is not simply that a 
mere inertia or quiescent condition remains, but the life- 
force in the subject acts, assimilates whatever is within 
its reach, and takes its direction according to the pre- 
ponderance of its surroundings. A remarkable organi- 
zation, strong moral and mental development, may guide 
or give a bias toward a wise selection of auxiliaries ; 
but an ordinary or defective organization may guide to- 
ward an unwise selection, and thus it is, — the absence 
of a direct training, becomes a training force itself. So 
that a child not trained is a being uncultured, and that 



42 



SERMONS. 



means a being demoralized, and a source of demoraliza- 
tion to others. You will sometimes see men with pecu- 
liar endowments, but with nothing else of what might 
be called advantages, still attaining to great virtue and 
usefulness — but because men are generally only ordi- 
nary, and because vice and ignorance tend to demoralize 
and weaken, in the absence of training, you will oftener 
find men sinking into vice and degradation, till it might 
be said, multitudes are trained in error and iniquity — ■ 
in the way they ought not to go. And so true it is, 
that when trained in it they do not depart from it, it is 
felt that the task of converting them is almost hopeless, 
and because of our neglect it is, that the world is filled 
with so much that is hopeless. We are intent upon the 
task of converting, when we ought to be busy with the 
God-given work of building. This thought, it seems to 
me, should be at the very head and front of all our ex- 
ertions for human good. 

Nor must we imagine that they who, without posi- 
tive training, attain to virtue and usefulness, attain to 
the same degree they would reach under a wise train- 
ing. If great benefactors have risen up to our race 
whom we did not deserve, how much greater had they 
been, and how many more of them, had we been wor- 
thy of them! Providence contemplates a direct train- 
ing force. Nature nowhere imagines that a human be- 
ing shall at any stage of its progress, but especially in 
its youth, be left without guidance. Guidance is God's 
prime provision for humanity. The Family, the Church, 
and the State, are the three ordained Educators, and they 
do educate or train, right or wrong. The duty of edu- 
cating wisely, is inherent and imperative in all three, 
and thus every man, by virtue of his relations to one or 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 



48 



other of these, owes it as a duty to God to bless the 
young. The teacher's work is the most sacred of all 
works. But nature's sovereign preceptor is the parent. 
In the order of time, and as a matter of fact, our moth- 
ers impart to us our first lessons in being. There is a 
keen and hidden force in that Bible record, which makes 
Eve the occasion of the fall in Adam. When women are 
studying their rights, what a pity it is they will not 
study in the right direction. In all time, it would seem 
as though God had put all well-being in a holy, sensible 
womanhood. No great man has been so great as his 
mother. The mother's eye, her smile, her tones, convey 
to the infant spirit life or death. There is a singular 
force in another expression of Solomon's — "A child left 
to himself bringeth his mother to shame ;" he does not 
say u his father " but u his mother" as if he had seen the 
apparent law that, beyond a mother's fidelity, there was 
no greater force upon earth. And yet her sovereignty 
remains but for a time — her problem soon becomes com- 
plicated. The rest of the family — friends, associates, 
neighbors — gradually assert their influence, till Church 
and State, or, what would be here an equivalent ex- 
pression for both, — society, — exerts as great an influence 
as parentage itself. 

Hence, the question arises, whence is parental wis- 
dom itself to come ? The aggregation of families is but 
society, and society but the aggregation of families. We 
at once make society and are made by it. This is a 
wonderful circle on which we live. Life is everywhere 
reacting upon itself — society cannot rise higher than 
itself. We impart only what we have received. A 
child born in China takes its language, its thought, its 
habits of life from its surroundings — it becomes Chinese. 



44 



SERMONS. 



A child born in Ireland, takes its language, its religion, 
its being from the Irish. There is, as it were, a plane 
of being fixed for it, beyond which it cannot rise. The 
parent itself has received a certain amount of being, 
more than which it cannot impart. Parentage is fettered 
by prejudice and prestige. Its facilities are only those 
which have been inherited from antecedent generations. 
Still it remains that the family is the great integer of 
human society, the first fact, the organic basis of human 
life. The prime duty of parentage, therefore, is self- 
culture. Here is the fact that lies at the basis of this 
subject. No matter what the forces of society are— no 
matter what the facilities or hindrances which have 
been handed down — all well-being for humanity concen- 
trates at the one point of parental wisdom and diligence. 
Without thought, without reading, especially of God's 
Word — without prayer, without constant circumspec- 
tion — neither the unconscious influence of example, nor 
the positive employment of means, can be in any high 
degree salutary. Without a wise independence of so- 
cial dixit ; without individual character ; without a 
Christian plan and purpose, the family will only drift 
with the common tide. In the slavishness of society, 
in the dominance of conventionality over all true wis- 
dom, lies one of our greatest hindrances. Viewed in 
some of its aspects, it is wonderful that we have as 
much promise in our youth as we have. We are told 
sometimes that we have no longer that reverence for 
parental authority which is traditional in our race. The 
great wonder would be if we had. We have forgotten 
that the fifth commandment is just as much a command- 
ment to the parent to be honorable, as it is to the child 
to honor the parent. The very first law in this matter 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 



45 



of training is in this filial honor and affection. The 
very hook on which all hope of success depends is filial 
obedience. If there is nothing to honor and nothing to 
obey, the discharge of duty in the child is impossible. 
In the very large majority of instances, the order of 
God is inverted. It is the child that trains the parent. 
It is the parent that obeys the child. It is here, in the 
want of parental authority, in the want of home disci- 
pline and culture, that our hopes are staggered — our 
exertions towards high and wise development neutral- 
ized. It is here that instruction and advice about train- 
ing children become useless. It is in vain for an artist 
to tell a clown how to be an artist. There is no recep- 
tivity, no skill; nothing to appropriate the advice. 
Rules for households are of no use to those who are 
above all rules — i. e., below all rules ; so that the one 
essential of all human progress is thoughtful Christian 
parentage. With that we have all blessing. Nothing 
upon earth can transcend in responsibility the office of 
a parent. It is no use to talk about the care, or the 
wrong, or the burden, or any other name by which we 
choose to call it, woe is unto us, if we betray our trust 
— woe in this world — woe in all worlds. We may dele- 
gate our work to nurses, to the streets, to society, but 
for it God will bring us into judgment. How many 
cups of woe are pressed home every day to unwilling 
parental lips. How many wrecks tell of parental infidel- 
ity ! How many souls are waiting in that other world 
till their children, blighted and cursed, their own work, 
shall follow them there to condemn them. We can 
bow down to society. We can teach our children to 
bow down to society. We can make respectability and 
fashion and ease and other people's opinions, our Gods 



SERMONS. 



and their Gods, but it had been better for both of us if 
we had never been born. Life is very solemn. God will 
not have us assume an office, except as we assume 
the responsibility. We must teach by example as 
by precept — unconsciously, as well as consciously. 
We must show that life means something, by our- 
selves attaching a meaning to it. If we do that, and I 
believe, thank God, that many of us are trying to do 
that — if we do that, we must study first of all the child- 
ren. It is no use to say children differ, and it is so 
hard to tell what to do. That is true enough ; children 
do differ, and God meant they should differ. A sorry 
world it would be, if we were all alike. Sometimes we 
say, this child has such a bad disposition — such an evil 
trait ; but, if there be anything evil or lad about it, it 
may be our fault — L e., it may be a good trait pervert- 
ed, indulged or pampered into badness. Sometimes 
people tell us how hard they have striven and how 
much they have failed. Both may be very true, and 
yet it may be equally true that they mistook the case 
in the beginning. Beyond a doubt, there are inherited 
tendencies. There are lusts and cravings and things 
that go to make up character, which come down from 
other generations. Intemperance and vice send their 
blight upon children's children. There is a law of na- 
ture by which the sins of the father goes down to the 
third or fourth generation — a law in itself enough to 
alarm us and make us wise. But in the child itself it 
is not sin. It is a tendency. It may be a weakness, a 
defect, a tax upon exertion, a discount upon our en- 
deavors, because it is a discount upon all the rest of 
its being. Still, it can be watched ; it can be fought 
against ; it can be overcome. Of course it intensifies 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 



47 



the problem, but it also pays. That child saved is a 
gem for the skies — a work to follow us and call us 
blessed. But very often the dispositions of which we 
complain are the very best things a child could have. 
Sometimes we complain that a child has a very strong 
will. I know of no greater blessing the child could 
have. Most of us have no will of our own ; we will as 
other people will. No farmer complains that a colt has 
very great strength ; he takes care it shall be properly 
applied ; he trains it. 

Toward a child with a strong will, our danger is either 
of crushing it altogether, or of turning it into wilful- 
ness, and both are fatal to the child. Some parents 
themselves have a will that is stronger and heavier than 
iron — i. e., a strong wilfulness that they mistake for a 
strong will. It has no elasticity. It is not tempered 
with affection. It has forgotten its own childhood. It 
teaches the child no self-control. It brings into play 
none of those finer sensibilities and agencies, which God 
gave it for the very purposes of self-government. There 
is perhaps not a single faculty which dominates, or 
characterizes any child, which is not itself a great bless- 
ing if we only Mew what to do with it. And the way to 
know what to do with it, is not to isolate it — not to 
separate it from all the rest of the child, but to put it 
in the combination in which God put it — turn it to 
harmony with all the rest of the child. The domina- 
ting faculty itself will then be the richer, a blessing to 
itself and to thousands. How many characters there 
are in history ; how many men we see every day, 
whom we feel have one great faculty, but which itself 
is not as great as it had been, if only the other half of 
them could have been developed. If, however, we en- 



48 



SERMONS. 



ter upon illustration here, the subject would be endless. 
But I say study the children. Work up the elements 
God has created, no matter what it costs. The prayers, 
the trials, the struggles, the self-denials, why, they 
shall build a mansion of glory for you. They cannot 
fail. Create the cause, you establish the effect. God 
neither sleeps nor forgets. There is an element above 
you and above it, — the Holy Ghost — God. Train your 
child, and then as long as you live, it will react in bless- 
ing upon you, and if you are taken away, you can leave 
it no heritage which will compare in value with the re- 
collection of your fidelity and example. 

I had intended, and would like very much, if there 
were time, to extend these thoughts into the duty of 
the State to educate. What is the State ? There are 
many senses in which that word is used. If you use it 
in the sense of government, then government is but 
representation. It may be used in the sense of an 
aggregation of families — society. Then, in society, 
there are always unfortunate people, who, as I have 
said, know not how to train their children, or who, 
knowing how, are unable to command the needful facili- 
ties. They know not much to impart and therefore are 
unable to impart much. Since we are members one of 
another, or since, as I have otherwise expressed it, every 
untrained child is necessarily so much disease to the 
body politic, no State can afford to have one ignorant, 
or untrained child. Every man is better off, in propor- 
tion as his neighbor's children are better off. As a mat- 
ter of policy, to say nothing of benevolence, it is wise to 
educate. We often have it said, that schools are cheaper 
than jails, and teachers better than policemen. We do 
not yet believe that. The level of the higher stratum of 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 



49 



humanity is always dependent upon the level of the 
lower. The top of the church spire depends upon the 
elevation of the tower. The nobility of Ireland would 
have been vastly happier to-day. if they had taken care 
of themselves, by taking care of the Irish. If Christian 
civilization is the highest upon earth, it is because 
Christianity sends men out of themselves to take care 
of themselves — not as a matter of selfishness, but as a 
matter of love. That is Christianity — that is the law 
of sacrifice, giving life to find life. Mind and heart are 
the jewels of God. The more of these the State has, 
the more we all have — the richer we all are. Those of 
us who have of these, owe it to God to impart it to 
those who. have it not. You are only a steward. That 
is the law of society, the law of accountability, the law 
of stewardship. In our religious zeal and sectarian wis- 
dom, which is very often only irreligious zeal and sec- 
tarian unwisdom, we deny the right to impart one, when, 
what we take to be the other, cannot go with it. No 
greater mistake was ever made. If twice two are four, 
if a knowledge of it is invaluable in human intercourse, 
and a man is that much better off for having it, then 
we are bound to teach him, and we can and ought to 
appoint a teacher for the purpose. If it be universally 
accepted that a man should be honest, then the teacher 
who should teach that it were better to be dishonest, 
would be in conflict with all our instincts, and not only 
should be, but would be, dismissed. If it is a question- 
able thing whether a Bishop, or immersion, are essential 
to religion, then that they are, should not be taught in 
any school. Wisdom is to teach us things that are 
certainly known, that we may be better able to judge 
respecting things that are so far unknown, and hence it 



50 



SERMONS. 



is, that the average of civilization is higher where such 
a course is pursued than where it is neglected. There 
is no question, in my mind, whether Prussia is better 
off than Italy, and I cannot believe that we as a people 
are going to be long entangled in the snare that has 
been laid for us in the question about the Bible in the 
schools. That is not the question at all. The real ques- 
tion is, schools or no schools. It is a question, too, 
which has come in its time. If we are alive, there is 
life in it for us. We must realize that while there is a 
law which tends to simplicity, it often so tends through, 
what appears to us, complexity. Two women in ancient 
times could grind at a mill, and do all the work contem- 
plated in flour, perhaps from the planting of the grain 
to the eating of the bread. But many agencies, each 
with a specific work, are needful in our times, and we 
have more flour and better bread. Time was, when so- 
ciety was patriarchal, and all that is now embraced in 
Church and State, was embraced in the family. Church 
and State have too long been complicated, and God is 
now eliminating the one from the other, and writing 
out in characters too legible to be mistaken, the duty 
of every Christian. Time was, when the State — and 
there are still such States — gave all the religion there 
is — and how much is it ? — what is it worth ? Time is, 
when God is saying to every family, your work is there, 
and to every Christian your work is there. Time is, when 
God is saying to every Christian man and woman, 
whether you have a child or not, of your own — there is 
a child for whom God has made you responsible, and 
whom He will look that you bring with you, when you 
come up in glory. The gain was immense when the 
Church broke away from the State, and the gain will 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 



51 



be immense when duty is defined before every Christian, 
and we have a life power in every man and woman that 
belong to the Church. I look upon it that out of the 
agitations through which we are passing is coming a re- 
newed life to the Church. Parental duty will be better 
defined, and parental energy will be quickened — social 
duty will be better defined, and social energy will be 
quickened. The Church herself will turn back again 
from profitless theories to high practical themes — from 
dogma to religion — from Paul and Apolos to Christ. 
One good begins, I think, already to appear, and that is 
a higher life in our Sunday Schools. The inauguration 
of the Sunday School was a great step in advance, but 
up to this time it has been more of a sentiment than of 
a work — our Sunday Schools have needed system and 
talent. Our Sunday School libraries have aimed at 
amusing, rather than at instructing. They greatly need 
weeding. Any foolish thing, will no longer do for a 
Sunday School book. Anybody, will no longer do for a 
teacher. To bridge over an hour on Sunday will no 
longer be sufficient. An immense importance attaches 
to the work. 

It is the recurrence of our Sunday School anniversary 
to-day, which has been the occasion of my bringing these 
thoughts before you. I had intended to speak more of 
our work here, but there is no time. I must defer it to 
this afternoon. But I may say we have much here over 
which to rejoice, and much to encourage us. Our work 
has prospered. We have a band of indefatigable labor- 
ers — many instances have come within my observation 
of good accomplished. From the Superintendent to the 
Infant class, there is life ; so much, we need more room, 



52 



SERMONS. 



and one fact I must mention, which is, that before long 
we must increase our capacity for this work. 

In closing — as I must close — let me ask you, dear 
brethren, if we cannot catch from what has been said, 
some higher glimpses, at least, of the solemnity of life — 
of our duties as parents, as citizens, and as Christians ? 
Can we not attach a somewhat higher estimate to child- 
hood, and realize the influence which we, through them, 
can exert upon generations to come after us. We do 
not love children enough. We love our children. We 
need to love childhood — innocent, helpless childhood — 
poor, dirty, neglected childhood — the stray lambs with- 
out a shepherd. If we could love them for Jesus' sake — 
love them as God loves them, enough to make some sacri- 
fice for them, enough to stand up in our lot and demand 
of our legislature better laws for them, we should be 
blessed in our love, and make them a blessing to thou- 
sands. 

I have not said anything about the promises of God, 
the influences of divine grace, the power of the Holy 
Ghost. I have dwelt upon our work. God will take 
care of His side, if we can only take care of ours. If 
we can sow the seed upon a broad and cultured ground, 
the elements of God's great providence will do the rest, 
whether we live or die. There are laws we can reach 
and ought to reach — then there are laws which work, 
and which nobody can reach. Thank God for that. 
When I look upon my little ones, and feel I must shortly 
leave them with no father-hand to guide them, and no 
father-heart to shield them, it is unspeakable comfort to 
know that God will not leave them nor forsake them. 
Blessed is he — blessed is she — who, when called to leave 
their little ones behind them, can feel, that they have 



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST. 



53 



themselves beaten the path and trained their little feet 
to the blessedness of that road which leads to the King- 
dom of Gocl. Blessed is he who, over and above his own, 
can feel that some child shall follow him to that king- 
dom and call him blessed ! May your children and mine 
be blessed! May God's spirit be outpoured upon all 
our work, and by and by, may you and I, and all who 
have sown and all who have reaped, through Jesus 
Christ rejoice together! 



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST. 

John 12 : 32. — And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
unto me. 

This is part of a discourse, perhaps the last, our Lord 
delivered upon Mount Moriah. He had just ridden into 
Jerusalem amid the hosannas of the multitude. There 
was great excitement everywhere concerning Him. His 
mission was drawing to its close. Three years of such 
a life had brought a crisis. Even Gentiles crave the 
privilege of seeing Him. Certain Greeks which had 
come up to worship, come to the disciples with the 
request : " Sirs, we ivould see Jesus." The disciples 
make the request known to the Master, and it becomes 
the occasion of His discourse. 

The simple fact of being desired by Gentiles, seems 
to suggest itself to Christ as a pledge to those around 
Him of the eventual fulfillment of His entire mission. 
These Greeks belonged to a people remarkable for their 
powers and habits of inquiry. They looked thoughtfully 



54 



SERMONS. 



into everything, and this request rises like a grand re- 
sponse from this human nature of ours, to that sacred mis- 
sion of Christ. The first words of His answer were : " The 
hour is come that the son of man should be glorified." 
To all appearance He was about to die, but in reality 
He was about to begin to live. A grain of wheat cast 
into the ground seems to be lost. In reality it casts 
off only an outward form, and springs into a grander and 
richer and reproductive life. All true life is attainable 
only through such a process. The gross, outward 
form, must pass away. Whoever lives only in that, 
lives not at all. 

There, in that hour, were drawing to a focus the plans 
of the ages past, and the hopes of the ages to come. 
The Saviour feels its solemnity and exclaims : " Now 
is my soul troubled. I know not what to say. Father, 
save me from this hour, and yet for the purpose of meet- 
ing this very hour have I come. I would not therefore 
turn from it: Only, Father, glorify thy name." (Con- 
template Christ as you will, conscious of a mission com- 
mitted to Him — conscious of having fulfilled it — behold- 
ing a future depending upon it, in the very hour of its 
consummation, from the very depths of His sincerity 
appealing to God ; did ever any man so speak before ?) 
A voice from heaven answers : " I have glorified it and 
will glorify it again." Jesus explained that this voice 
was not for Him, but for them that stood around Him. 
It was God's response to these Greeks. Deep responds 
to deep, truth to truth. The divine things in Christ 
had been perceived. It was this the nations had been 
longing for. Christ was truly "the desire of all 
nations." In the nature of things, all that was in Christ 
should become clearer and clearer to men. The old, 



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST. 



55 



sensual, carnal life, men had been living, was now to be 
condemned. The prince of darkness was to be exposed 
as indeed a jirince of darkness, and be deposed. The 
Prince of Peace was to be reached as indeed a Prince 
of Peace, and be enthroned, and real life begin to reign. 
" Now is the judgment of this world — now is the prince 
of this world to be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto me." 

It is abundantly evident, that in this discourse and in 
this verse, Jesus Christ is speaking of Himself as the 
means by which God will reconcile all men to himself. 
The whole plan and process of salvation is not by Christ 
logically, consecutively — if you please — ■philosophically 
expressed. It never is, for man hath no word-forms to 
which that plan and process can be reduced. We should 
have been worse off with a philosophical expression 
than without it. Heaven's logic is love. Love knows 
nothing of syllogism ; love simply sees. Place redemp- 
tion in an earth-created form, and you only increase the 
materialism which has already crushed mankind. Lan- 
guage is not thought ; thought everywhere overlaps lan- 
guage; compress the thought to language, and 66 the 
letter Jcilleth." It always must, because thought is con- 
tinually outgrowing language, or ought to do it, and 
this is why those who have the most creed have the 
least life. 

Perhaps this plan of God's salvation is, not so much 
a plan, as it is an essence, which is to pervade all plans 
— not so much a thing, as an element of all things — not 
directly and immediately to produce a desired result, but 
to make things already existing produce it. If man 
were in a garden of dying and fruitless trees, and want- 
ed fruit, he would make a new tree to produce it ; he 



56 



SERMONS. 



would tear up and destroy and start anew, and repeat 
his old failure. But God's plan is, not a new root, or 
new trunk, or new branch, but a new life sent through 
root and trunk and branch, spreading out into leaf and 
bloom and fruit. It is redemptory — it is quickening. 
As such, it is as incapable of philosophical form as the 
life of vegetation is beyond our touch or any of our 
senses. A thing admitting of endless manifestations, 
a thing to be perceived and realized only in its effects. 
Such this plan of God's salvation would seem to be. It 
was incarnate in Christ, and yet it could only outcrop, 
so to speak, in word, in act, in life, — sometimes dimly, 
sometimes clearly, and yet not so you can grasp it, till 
you take all Christ was from Bethlehem to Calvary, in- 
clusive, and not then — till you take Christ as He stands 
upon all time, in the promises of the ages antecedent, in 
the fruition of the ages subsequent, and not then, till 
you have Him in your heart and soul and mind — not 
by logic or creed, but by the life-force which you know 
experimentally to be in Him. The scales must fall 
from your eyes, the inner vision must be opened, if you 
would see Christ. It is needful for us to do just what 
these Greeks wanted to do — see Christ — not a second- 
hand ideal — not a mere report of Him — not one of His 
disciples, but what He is, what constitutes divine life, 
and even then^ you do not comprehend this plan of sal- 
vation. You only feel it in you, and see it round you, 
and perceive it reaching out over all time, and stretch- 
ing into far eternity. You cannot express it. At every 
one of its outcroppings, men have undertaken to give 
it expression, but their best attempts have been only 
approximations. They have talked of atonement, of 
sacrifice, of imputed righteousness, of election, of justi- 



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST. 



57 



fication, of sanctification, of faith, of works — looping, 
analyzing, questioning, till those who saw only their 
own position, and not much of that, have denied the 
position of others, and thus have given rise to contradic- 
tion and confusion. They have dissected it, and given 
us here and there a lifeless limb, when what we wanted 
was a living, loving, present Christ — a talking, sympa- 
thizing, shielding God — an imparting, radiating, quick- 
ening life. But, what is a grand and consoling fact, 
amid all confusion, each comes back to Christ at last, 
and says, my central thought is there. And it is there. 
All central thought is there. Each word-form is in 
part expression of that life which is beyond expression — 
that which is, alone, the full expression of eternal life 
for man. What is in Him is wisdom and righteousness 
and sanctification and redemption. We are to see that, 
to feed upon it. That is the power of God to salvation, 
of necessity only to him that believeth. But that is the 
precious thought, men shall go on believing. The na- 
tions shall enlarge their vision. It shall be lifted up, 
and the craving shall keep increasing, till all men shall 
be drawn to Him. The prince of this world shall be cast 
out, and Christ, not only lifted up, but enthroned. 

Thus, this life is directly and always connected with 
Christ, and He, again, directly and always connected 
with this "lifting up." This "lifting up" was literally 
His crucifixion. The very next verse tells us this. The 
crucifixion was the ripening, the culmination of the 
whole scheme of divine redemption. It was, in the 
nature of things, the only process by which the life of 
Christ could be indelibly fixed upon the mind of man ; 
the process by which it should be kept from the whirl- 
pool of oblivion—by which, through all time, it should 



58 



SERMONS. 



stand out in bold and unmistakable relief. It is, and 
will always stand, the wonderful thing of all wonders, 
that have occurred in human history. It was to finish, 
to make perfect, the work of ages. For this hour Christ 
had come, but He had come for every other hour of His 
life which had preceded it. At the manger — in the tem- 
ple at twelve years old — at the well-side — at the grave 
of Lazarus — in pleading with Scribes and Pharisees — in 
the Sermon upon the Mount — in divine instruction to the 
disciples — everywhere — He was but going to Calvary. 
That hour was the sum of all His hours. That " lifting 
up," was but the fullness of three and thirty years — that 
three and thirty years but the fullness of all time. It 
is through this we are to look at that cross. Christ is 
there, the prophet of all time, the Priest of all people, the 
king of all ages. Two eternities, the everlasting past 
and the everlasting future, met there. Two worlds, the 
earthy and the heavenly, met there. Two beings, the 
divine and the human, met there. That crucifixion was 
sacrifice, was atonement for human sin, reconciliation 
between God and man, not in its bare, simple self, not in 
the isolated act or fact, but in the Christ that was there, 
in the incarnation that closed there, and in the spiritual 
life to man that began there, in the divine being that 
was there that day so uplifted, that it never again 
should be hidden from mankind. That uplifting was 
needful, not only to make the atonement complete, but 
so to complete it as to bring out its force, to make it 
effective, that man might not be drawn to Christ merely 
in theory, but in fact — not merely in desire, but in actual 
attainment. 

It seems to me, if we fail to get this thought, we fail 
to penetrate very far into this scheme of divine redemp- 



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST. 



59 



tion — we fail to perceive the consoling force, the inevit- 
able necessity of the truth in this promise of Christ, if 
He be lifted up, He will draw all men to Him. I do 
not wonder that they who do not see it, become despon- 
dent, and forget that Christ ever made such a promise. 
And what a promise it is ! Christ will draw all men, all 
nations, every family of this race to Him — not all at 
once, but slowly, as the sun draws out the harvest. 
And if we could see that this promise is based upon the 
nature of things, in the infallibility of God, what a sup- 
port and encouragement is there for all work and all 
faith ! 

For us to tell in all respects how Christ is atonement, 
or expiation for human sin, is impossible. In my judg- 
ment we have seen but the beginning of Christ's Gospel. 
But in that beginning there is very much we can see. 
We can see this atonement has two sides — first, God's 
reconciliation to us, and second, our reconciliation to 
God. The first we cannot penetrate; the second we 
not only can but ought to understand. The first in- 
volves such questions as, whether God needed anything 
to appease Him, whether there were any justice to be 
satisfied— involves questions theological and, at best, 
speculative — questions in which we are wise overmuch, 
in that we attempt, to pronounce where Christ was 
pleased to be silent — questions with respect to which, 
if we knew more, we should find to be no questions at 
all. If the atonement were because God needed any- 
thing to appease Him, either as an angry God or as a 
just God, then the atonement is made, once and forever, 
full, perfect and sufficient. If the atonement were 
merely declaratory — merely an act expressive of the 
fact that God already loved us and wanted us to love 



60 



SERMONS. 



Him, that he was reconciled to us and only wanted us 
to be reconciled to Him — then that atonement is also 
made, full, perfect and sufficient. This part of the 
atonement is eminently practical, a part that we can un- 
derstand and need to understand. The atonement is so 
made that it proclaims to us what the reconciliation is 
that God wants — so made, that it entreats us to be rec- 
onciled to God. 

In viewing it from this position, that it is a declara- 
tion of God's reconciliation toward us, and an entreaty 
that we become reconciled to Him, we can see, to begin 
with, the need of a sacrifice, and what the sacrifice was 
that Christ made, and how natural it was God should 
make it. That God is love, there can be no disputing. 
If we need it in authoritative statement, we have it in 
the declaration of Christ Himself : " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only -begotten Son." 

The atonement is thus, not a cause of God's love, but 
itself a resultant, made because God loved. If you 
analyze the idea of God, you will see it embraces every- 
thing of strength, of mercy, of help. That which is the 
most useful thing in the universe — that without which 
nothing could live — is God. That which is most help- 
ful to the thing most needful — that which helps where 
nothing else could, or would ever think of helping — 
that is God. If man lay at the very opposite extreme 
of being, how the very idea of God implies that He should 
go there to help him ! What sort of a mother would that 
be, who could do nothing for her child ? How rich 
would he be, who could only take care of himself? 
What would that philanthrophy be worth, which could 
only come and look upon the stricken sinner and pass 
by on the other side ? If man were ever to be helped 
it must be by a higher being, and that help of necessity 



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST. 



61 



must involve suffering, or sacrifice to that being ; and 
oh ! what God would that be, who could afford nothing 
of help or comfort to His helpless children ? You must 
perceive, it seems to me, the idea of sacrifice in the 
very idea of God. Men tell you they cannot conceive 
of God suffering. I ask you whether you can get a 
conception of God without that idea ? It is of the very 
essence of the idea of goodness. It is there you begin 
to get a pledge of the promise made by Christ in the 
text. If you can get men to see that, you start, in 
man himself, a force which is in its very nature red em p- 
tory. The one idea grows upon the other as naturally 
as a rose upon its stem. It is a declaration or mani- 
festation of God. And in addition you perceive, not 
only sacrifice, but vicarious sacrifice. One being suffer- 
ing for another, not undergoing the same suffering, for 
that is imposible, but suffering in a way to remove suf- 
fering, in a way to prevent the cause of suffering. Nor 
is this alone in Christ, it is a law that pervades existence, 
and has its perfection in Christ only as all laws have 
their perfection in Him. The mother does suffer for 
her child, the soldier for his countrymen — in a thousand 
ways we suffer for each other, and the more and more 
voluntarily, in proportion as we are godly, or God-like. 
I say there is a law about it — a law which demands of 
you the higher you are the more help you shall be. 
Yes, I would put it stronger than that : a law which 
determines, that the extent to which you do help and 
bless another is the exact measure of your own eleva- 
tion, or goodness. Out of that law grows the fact, that 
if you can get one man truly elevated, you get a seed, 
as it were, which will eventually get the race elevated, 
therefore the fact, that Christ being lifted will draw all 



62 



SERMONS. 



men unto Him. Only God knew this law — only God 
could make such a sacrifice, and blessed be God, He did 
do it. It seems like a paradox, but it is one of those 
divine paradoxes on which the foundations of the uni- 
verse are laid. 

Now, what was the sacrifice Christ made ? It was 
man to be lifted. You look out upon your city, and 
see whole classes vulgar, ignorant, degraded. You see 
little children neglected, squallid and wretched. You 
wish them better off. Will that help them ? Must you 
not go to them, or send to them, or in some way reach 
them ? Must you not in some way beget self-action in 
them ? If you go there to teach them, can they treat 
you any better than they know how, and must you not 
of necessity encounter all the evils their condition in- 
volves, in order to impart to them the blessings of the 
condition to which you wish to lift them ? We read of 
a Missionary who went to the West Indies to preach to 
the slaves. In order to do it, he had actually to become 
a slave — to work with them, and expose himself to all 
their hardships. He did it. "A very good man," you 
say. Yes, I have shown you that ; but can you see his 
sacrifice? Because he was exalted, he was capable of 
the sacrifice ; he showed them the good-will of Chris- 
tians toward them, and what it was to be a Christian. 
So Christ became a man, for maris sake. In this prison- 
house with us He showed us that God had now no en- 
mity toward us. He wanted us to love Him, and so be- 
come loveable. We knew not what the loveable thing 
was that God wanted, nor how to become that thing. 
Christ became that thing for us, and showed us how to 
reach it. This simple fact was so constituted as to 
make two demonstrations — one of what God was, one 



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST. 



63 



of what man was. We needed to see both. What was 
our condition ? One of infirmity first of all. There 
was nothing of ignorance, of misfortune; nothing of 
poverty ; nothing of prejudice ; nothing of social disad- 
vantage ; nothing of pride, of civil or religious intoler- 
ance, He did not encounter. He literally "bore our infirm- 
ities." He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Then 
hypocrisy, ingratitude, injustice, falsehood, error, love 
of evil, envy, hatred, malice — these were our sins, our 
prison-house. These Christ took upon him. He liter- 
ally bore our transgressions. Insult, buffetings, sicknesses, 
want, everything down to murder — these were conse- 
quences of our sin, these were incident to our condition. 
These, Christ encountered. " He was wounded for our 
transgressions and bruised for our iniquities." " He 
was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief." He 
did not heedlessly aggravate wickedness. He did not 
strive to stir it up and make it worse than it was. Nay, 
you know it is a law that you have only to accuse error 
or wrong — i. e., merely to point out error and wrong to 
make them at once active — active according to their 
own instincts. He let them have their way. He lit- 
erally exhausted them. He resisted not, nor complained. 
" As a sheep before the shearer is dumb, He opened 
not his mouth." He. let our evil nature have, what to 
it was victory. Our wickedness could not measure 
His goodness. Our hatred could not subdue His love. 
He would have been only a man if it had been other- 
wise, but his love was divine. You can see there a 
divine being, a being that was divine. Do not mix it 
up with the question whether Christ was God. I say 
we see there what all our instincts tell us to be of God, 
tell us to be divine. It was quenchless. The struggle 



64 



SERMONS. 



was fearful and to the last extremity. His very inno- 
cence exasperated us. We made a cross and nailed 
Him to it. We lifted Him up in cruelty and derision. 
From His lips fell only the accents of love. The elements 
sought to hide our shame in darkness. The earth put 
on sackcloth. The human race had conspired. God 
had triumphed. That crucifixion was the demonstration 
of our vileness and weakness on the one side, and of God's 
love and goodness on the other. There was what we are. 
There in that Christ was what God wanted us to be. 
The light that struck down from that cross floated 
back over that life, over it all was written God, and 
every letter of that word was love. The light that 
struck down from that cross penetrated the darkened 
recesses of our fallen being, and revealed to us what sin 
and Satan had made us — revealed our unnaturalness, 
our deformity. It had this effect, by the spirit of God, 
to make us condemn ourselves and desire God. " Now 
was the prince of this world judged" — now was God in 
Christ glorified ! To create that fact, itself so near to 
impossibility, was to create this other fact, of which 
Christ speaks. If the work could have a beginning, it 
should accomplish that whereunto God intended it. If 
a handful could be drawn to Him before His work were 
completed, then, when he was lifted up and the whole 
mission were fulfilled, all men should be drawn to Him. 
There was much yet to be revealed. That Christ, pass- 
ing through a crucifixion, passed really to a resurrection. 
That fact opened a future of eternal truth. That Christ- 
life leads to glory, to a kingship, to power and domin- 
ion which can know no limit in time, or degree. Plant 
that thought upon earth and, though it be but a grain 
of mustard seed, it shall grow into the grandest of all 



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST. 



65 



trees, and the nations of the earth shall take refuge in 
its branches. If Christ be lifted up all men shall be 
brought unto Him. Oh what a future opens there ! and 
how God calls us to it, not in the thunder-tones of Sinai, 
but in the still small voice of endearing and consoling 
love. 

You cannot help seeing, then, redemption. If you 
can make every man what Christ was, you take him out 
from his old nature and make him a heavenly being. 
If you can fill this world with such beings, you make a 
heaven. There would be a new earth wherein would 
dwell righteousness. I would like to take you along 
the Christian centuries, and show you that this work 
has been really going on. You say this world is very 
wicked, and truly it is ; but do you know how wicked 
this world was when Christ came to it ? If all the evils 
that then existed could be concentrated in your lot un- 
der your present advancement, you would rather die 
than live. But is it nothing to know this world is a 
wicked world? Does that fact in itself set none of us 
to standing guard over principle and honor and truth ? 
And if we are wicked, have justice, law, liberty, gained 
no ground ? Are none of those life-forces, which were 
in Christ, directly acting in us and upon us ? Are none 
living unto Him who died and gave Himself for us — 
living in that same self-sacrifice He marked for us in 
His own footsteps — and if there are any, do we know 
that there are not many ? If we are influenced by that 
life and death of Christ, is there not a pledge in that, 
that by and by even all shall be drawn to Him ? 

But a question far more vital to us than this, is, what 
effect has that life of Christ, that cross of Christ, 
had upon us ? What think ye of Christ ? What think 



66 



SERMONS. 



you of His atonement ? Has it taken away your sin ? 
Do you feel you are reconciled to God ? If not, then 
of what avail has time been to you ? — what avail that 
cross ? In those out-stretched arms there is mercy — in 
those wounds there is life, but what if you pass them 
heedlessly by ? That is a solemn question, my dear 
hearer. That was a solemn day when Christ uttered 
the words of our text — His hour had come ! There is 
a time when our hour, too, shall come. That hour may 
very soon come. The flight of seasons tells us life is very 
short. When we lie upon our back and feel the life- 
tide ebbing away — when we realize we are to come be- 
fore the presence of God, we want something strong and 
something in which to trust — we want to feel we have 
had Christ, God's own Son, for our guide and our strong 
salvation. But suppose, in looking back, the testimony 
of our days be, that we have not followed Christ at all — 
that His life and His death were alike matters of no 
consequence to you. How can you die ? And if you 
cannot die without this Christ formed within you, your 
hope of glory, how can you live without Him? You 
do not know the extent to which you are a sinner. And 
yet God does not know you as a particular sinner ; he 
only knows you as a particular soul that needs salva- 
tion. You are to be reconciled to Him, not He to you. 
You need no oblation to bring, but the simple oblation 
of a believing heart — that is all. God asks only with 
respect to your sins, that you leave them behind ; He 
asks only that you take Him at His word, and hunger 
and thirst after Him. If you can forgive yourself, He 
can forgive. If you can forsake, He can forget. God 
loves you : that is what the Cross says to you. If you 
would know how God loves you, begin to love God. 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 



67 



God loves you ! this is the voice that greets you in the 
solemn vigils of this Passion week. This is the voice 
that rises from the whole incarnation — from the manger 
to sad Gethsemene— -from every footprint of that sacred 
life— from the hungry and thirsty wilderness to His 
huffetings amid the contradiction of sinners — from His 
noonday journeys and His midnight watchings — from 
the Judgment Hall and the Uplifted Cross, — God loves 
you ! Will you love Him ? This is the question pressed 
by every need of your soul. This is the question the 
Spirit of God yearns for you to answer. The very airs 
that breathe this week — the very fact of Good-Friday — 
the bells that toll — all speak to us of Christ and the 
Cross. They tell us how God loved us ; that the Son 
of God was "lifted up," and they all ask us whether 
we have been drawn to Him. May the Spirit of the 
living God be with you and me, that we may be able to 
feel, that in Christ Jesus we have found life everlasting! 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 

Mark 6 : 31 — And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a 
desert place and rest awhile, for there were many coming and going, and 
they had no leisure so much' as to eat. 

Christ had sent his disciples out to preach the Word. 
Having fulfilled that special mission, they gather them- 
selves home to Him again, and tell Him all things, both 
what they had done and what they had taught, and he 
said unto them, " Come ye yourselves apart into a desert 
place and rest awhile, for there were many coming and 



68 



SERMONS. 



going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat." 
Having departed, however, the multitude follows them, 
and in the wilderness Christ performs the miracle of 
feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. 
He dismissed His disciples to cross over to the other 
side of the sea. He sends away the multitudes and 
betakes himself to a mountain to pray. In the midst of 
the night, while His disciples are toiling — contending 
with winds and waves — He appears to them, and enter- 
ing into the ship with them, He stills the elements and 
goes with them safely to the shore. 

This whole passage is impressive and peculiarly in- 
structive. Man is an active, restless being ; he has of 
necessity much work to do, but he makes by far the 
larger portion of his work for himself. He forgets he 
has a soul as well as a body ; he absorbs his time and 
energy in the affairs of the flesh; he leaves his soul 
pinched and starved. In this forgetfulness he creates 
for himself his severest conflict — makes the elements of 
his being antagonistic. When he has made a paradise 
for his body, that becomes a desert for his soul, and 
what is a desert for his body, is often the paradise of 
his spirit. One of the offices of religion through all 
ages has been to equalize the claims of body and soul — 
to place man in harmony with his true being, and put 
an end to our strifes by putting an end to their causes. 

Even in its religious matters the world has often been 
a little super-religious. In its blindness it has laid upon 
itself many a necessity God would willingly have spared 
it. Because of our lame and helpless condition, religion 
which would otherwise have been the life of all work, 
has been only itself an additional work in life. The 
absence of religion in many men, and the absolute need 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 



69 



of it in all, makes it the duty of some to find out what 
religion is, to keep it alive, to extend it — makes the 
Church a necessity — introduces an agency, the respon- 
sible duties of which, are as arduous as any that can be 
laid upon frail humanity. The Apostles had no leisure. 
They pressed their mission with ardor. Christ saw they 
had need of a resting place. He said to them : " Come 
ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile." 
The Master had to tell them to do it. Though they 
were engaged in a religious work, there was danger of 
their making it just as much a work — of running through 
it — absorbed in it — neglecting the wise and proper cul- 
ture of their souls, as the men did for whom they were 
laboring. This has always been man's danger, of secu- 
larizing even religion. It was needful their souls should 
be fed, their spirits should drink in, the rich and deep 
things of God. He had something precious to impart 
to them when they were in the desert, something no 
city could give, the precious knowledge, that to be with 
Him was to have all they could desire — to have God 
for their friend. They wanted the still, small voice — 
not the whirlwind nor the storm. 

What those Apostles needed is just what the whole 
Church has needed, what all men need, the turning 
aside from the heavy, pressing cares of life — the self- 
imposed and time-imposed burdens — the jostlings, vex- 
ations, strivings of the world, to be alone with God ; 
to lift the soul up to higher altitudes and clearer reveal- 
ings ; to let the soul define herself, her capacities, and 
her longings. Like those Apostles, the Church of Gocl 
needs it for a two-fold end — needs it for personal edifi- 
cation and for universal benefit. How can the blind 
lead the blind ? How can the Church tell men of God 



70 



SERMONS. 



and heaven, if she knows not God nor heavenly things ? 
It was not simply to rest their bodies, that Christ took 
the disciples aside. It was rest, as all rest should be, 
improvement. It was rest, as rest in heaven will be, 
learning of God. Come ye yourselves apart ; I have 
something to tell you; I have food for you, and food for 
you to give others. Amid the din and excitements of 
life, this is the one thing we need. Perhaps it is be- 
cause we are so little and so seldom apart with ourselves 
and Christ, that life presses upon us so heavily. . It is, 
after all, the strength from within, with which we bear 
up the burdens from without, and if that strength from 
any cause be wanting, life is only bewilderment and un- 
rest. God has mercifully appointed Sabbath-days, one- 
seventh of our time, in which specially to feed on divine 
and eternal things. Christ calls us apart, to be with 
Him and with God and ourselves. Great blessings are 
these Sabbaths, if we so spend them, not letting the 
ivork of religion infringe upon this real purpose of soul 
communion. And yet, God would not limit us in this 
purpose to Sabbath days. He would have us often apart 
by ourselves, and perhaps one reason why the Church 
in her aggregate, with all her machinery and doctrines, 
is not more efficient, is that the Church, in her individ- 
uals, is not more frequently and closely in direct and 
far-reaching communion with God. I wish, therefore, 
this morning to direct your attention to a few thoughts 
upon the subject of prayer. 

For the edification of our souls, for that is the true 
meaning of rest to our bodies, God has mercifully ap- 
pointed Sabbath days, one-seventh of our time, in which 
to feed on divine and eternal things. Christ calls us 
apart. But " the Holy Church throughout all the 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 



71 



world," at this Lenten season, pauses to turn aside with 
Christ to go up with Him to rest awhile — rest in holy 
contemplation — in meditation upon the great human 
struggle — in attuning the soul to heavenly things. Lent 
is called a fast, an abstinence not merely from meats 
and drinks, but a foregoing of many of those pleasures 
and indulgences, the giddy, frivolous things of life, 
from which, it were better for man, would he declare 
an eternal separation. Being here in the retired place, 
the Master shows us the proper privileges of the time 
and place, works of benevolence and prayer. 

But more especially of prayer, and yet I do not know 
that I ought to say " more especially of prayer," for 
this is the season in which we should particularly count 
up the mercies of God to us, and ask ourselves whether, 
according to our ability and opportunity, we are sus- 
taining those heavenly instrumentalities, which have 
for their object, the giving of bread to human bodies, 
and the meat which endureth to eternal life to human 
souls. But it is of prayer I wish more particularly this 
morning to speak. The question which naturally and 
first presents itself is, What is prayer ? And it is a 
question much more easy to ask than to answer. If 
there be up to this hour of mortal progress, one thing 
more clearly denned by human inquiries into the con- 
stitution of things than another, it is, that man every- 
where stands upon the shores of a great unknown. The 
universe is an infinite circle. At any point of the cir- 
cle on which man rests, on each side of him, stretches 
an infinity. Gaze in whatever direction he may, he be- 
holds the wonderful. The most that mortal thought 
can do, is to promote scieiice — L knowledge of what 
is — but no science can ever reach perfection, because 



72 



SERMONS. 



no science can ever measure all there is to be known. 
The telescope reveals an infinity above us, and the mi- 
croscope an infinity below us, or rather, neither is above 
us nor below us, but we live, everywhere, with an infin- 
ity all around us. Man is the center of creation, and 
yet, what we anywhere know, is as nothing to what we 
do not know. In us and around us are forces and agen- 
cies more subtle than our keenest perceptions. By 
these forces and agencies, men and all things to which 
they apply, have their being. As electricity kept the 
pole to her center, and made the world revolve in bless- 
ing for man before he knew there was such a thing as 
electricity; so, there are agencies more vital and pow- 
erful than that, doing their work for us, of which we 
still are ignorant. Effects of electricity were in the 
world as long as there has been a world, only we could 
not explain them. Effects, endless, are all around us : 
we cannot explain them : we call them mysteries. 
" What we know not now we shall know hereafter !" 

What is prayer ? First of all, it is a something for 
which man finds in him a special and peculiar need. 
There is a law in our human being, there is a relation 
between the moral intelligence creating, and the moral 
intelligence created, which absolutely demands between 
those two communication. Prayer is the outgroivth of a 
law in moral being. Go back in the past as far as we 
may, take as wide a range as our investigation can, we 
find no age and no people to who.m prayer has been un- 
known. Whether you call the nation, Pagan, Jewish, 
or Christian — whether you call the spirit of that people, 
idolatrous, religious, superstitious or philosophic, the fact 
of prayer remains the same. It may be that in many 
people and for many ages together, the idea of the fact 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 



73 



is but dimly defined, or more than that, the manifesta- 
tions may be, rather the perversion of the fact than the 
fact itself — still, the perversion proves there must have 
been a great original, and wherever there has been cul- 
tivation, there has been prayer, pure, comprehensive, 
intelligible ; and the purer, more reasonable, and intelli- 
gible, the philosophy or religion of a man has been, so 
much the more pure, comprehensive and intelligible, 
have been his prayers, until, to select the purest, noblest 
men of our race, the men in advance of their kind, in 
all usefulness, goodness and moral grandeur, is to select 
the very men who have resorted most to prayer, to 
what is otherwise called, " communion with God." 

They who have not been true, nor great, nor useful, 
have not been men of prayer, and so far have proved 
that with whatever they communed, they lacked a com- 
munion with goodness, and consequently with God. The 
purest religious systems, and so far as I know, all re- 
ligious systems, enjoin the exercise of prayer. Nor is 
prayer the result of the written commandment, but the 
written commandment is the result of the original, nat- 
ural law. Like all true commands, it is but the trans- 
cript of divinely ordained nature. So that whatever 
prayer might be, many reasonable considerations con- 
spire to show, that he who employs it is wiser than he 
who neglects it; he who employs it, is in unison 
with one of the highest laws of his being. He who 
neglects it, neglects his own soul. He who will not 
pray, or cannot pray, or does not pray, is out of tune 
with highest being. There is a blank in his spirit. 
There is the best territory of his soul to him locked up, 
unknown, utterly lost. That is part of what it is to be 
lost, not that we are lost to something, but that some- 



74 



SERMONS. 



thing is lost to us. There is a joy transcendent, per- 
haps the highest joy known to man, of which he is utter- 
ly ignorant, and whether he be wholly lost or not, in 
that kind of being, and to that degree he is unfortunate, 
because he is in darkness. If there be one here who 
thinks prayer is useless, who from any cause is not in 
the habit of praying, let not this thought escape you. 
The absence of prayer, or of desire to pray, is a blank 
in your highest and noblest being. 

Because prayer is an office of our higher being, and 
because it is responsive to a law, it cannot be that 
prayer will soon cease, to a true child of God. It is 
common for us to talk of our prayers being eventually 
turned into praises, but I think that is taking a very 
narrow view of prayer ; for, take away prayer from the 
saints, and you take away the sweetest privilege they 
have — it is heaven, it is presence with God ; it was, 
hence, that Jesus prayed — He, though upon earth, in 
prayer was with the Father. The same moral need 
which is in all men was also in Him. That is the reason 
He prayed ; archangels pray; all holy beings pray; they 
must commune with God. Prayer is not always asking 
for something, not always praising ; prayer is commun- 
ion ; your little child communes with you even when it 
has no petitions to present. 

Whatever it is, if it be as it would appear to be, by 
God's own ordering — in His wisdom, which framed all 
things — if it be, as it certainly is, the injunction of God 
in His holy word, then it must be that God will have 
respect to him who prays. If you establish the cause, 
you of necessity establish the effect. It is here you 
strike the certainty of all God's promises — heaven and 
earth may pass away, but God's word cannot pass away. 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 



75 



God's word is based upon eternal law; its foundations 
stand fast forever. 

Strange it seems to be — this very consideration, 
which is the sinner's great encouragement, his almost 
only plea — God's fidelity — has been brought sometimes 
as the very reason why prayer was unreasonable. We 
are told if God works by laws, then of necessity nature 
must hold her course ; causes must go on producing 
their effects ; things must be as they are decreed to be. 
How can we in our misconceptions — asking for things 
which are perhaps impossible — change the will of God ? 
How can we, when we know that He doeth all things 
well, ever desire that his will should be changed ? But 
we do not desire God's will to be changed. What if 
this law of prayer be one of God's fixed laws ? We do 
not ask impossible things. What if prayer itself be part 
of the warp or the woof of the fabric which constitutes 
His providence? If it be, and I think you have some 
reason to believe that it is, even nature herself yields 
us what we persistently in another way ask her for, but 
if it be, is it unnatural or unreasonable that it, like all 
law, should effect its purpose ? Is there not only an 
additional reason then why we should pray ? But look 
again. Does prayer necessarily presuppose a change in 
God ? Is there nothing else to change ? Suppose, in- 
stead of God's being turned into a likeness of our minds, 
our minds should be turned into a likeness of God. 
What then? Would that be no desirable effect, no 
blessing, no profit in prayer ? May it not be, God insti- 
tuted it for this very purpose ? In our blindness we 
know not God — we know not what is for our good. 
The blessing, the crowning glory of the creature, is to 
be like God. To see Him in His wisdom, His beauty, 



76 



SERMONS. 



His perfection — that is the creature's well-being. The 
creature must, change out of darkness into light, out of 
weakness into strength, out of nothingness into real 
being — man, and no doubt all creature-being, begins at 
a germinal point. Man is to work his way from that 
point upward ; he is to learn of God — that is being. He 
is to learn the laws of trust, of affection, of all well- 
being. A man finds a barrier across his path ; he en- 
treats God to take it away. But suppose God does not 
want it away ; suppose he is upon the wrong road ; sup- 
pose by prayer he finds it out, and comes back again to 
where God does want him, and where there is no bar- 
rier ? Is prayer of no use ? Suppose he has a burden 
upon his shoulders and he entreats God to take it away. 
You know if you do not use your arm, how weak it 
gets; if you do not train yourself to great achievements, 
how incapable you become. Suppose God sees how 
weak his shoulders are, and for that very reason put 
the burden there — not that he might have something to 
carry, but be able to carry something — not that the 
burden is with the carrying, but that the shoulders 
should get stronger. You all know how the burden of 
ten years ago, would now seem to you no burden at all. 
You have grown. Suppose God has some great work 
for him to do, and is preparing, that man to do it, and 
suppose, by and by, he comes to see it, and does not ask 
any more to have it removed, but prays God to go on 
and make him all the stronger. Is there no profit in 
prayer, and do you not see how it is God lays his heav- 
iest burdens upon his strongest children ? Is there then 
no profit in prayer ? May it not be — is it not certain, 
God always answers, whether he gives us what we ask 
for, or not? Is there no glory in the thought, that 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 



77 



though the thorn be not removed, the sinner can stand 
at last and say, God's grace is sufficient, and he can now 
do all things through Christ strengthening him ? Did 
He who came from heaven make a mistake when He 
prayed Himself, and taught all men to pray, and showed 
us how to hope and endure, and be patient ; how in 
waiting we were still serving, and how out of all serving 
came at last a reward ? 

And what a short-sighted view of God is it, to con- 
template Him only as a combination of laws known to 
us ! Do we know all there is of Gocl ? All His ways 
of working ? Has He no resources, no ministering 
agencies but those which have reported to us ? Do we 
know all there is of ourselves ? Are there no forces 
within us which our philosophies have not discovered ? 
What is that longing, man feels in his spirit ? There is 
a part of God's being, the broadest, grandest, highest, of 
which, we as yet know almost nothing, with respect to 
which, man is yet slow of heart to believe, a part not 
without law, a part the climax and perfection of law, an 
essence that, like gravity to material being, underlies and 
pervades all moral being, that part called love. Who 
yet has measured even human affection ? What line 
or plummet ever sounded the depths of a mother's love ? 
What dictionary can define for us that word " Father . ? " 
What within the limits of possibility has not been 
wrought by the quenchless impulses of a devoted heart ? 
There is no relation in which God delights more to be 
viewed, no thought of Himself which He delights oftener 
to present to us, than that He is the " Father," not sim- 
ply, as we will persist in thinking, that He is the crea- 
tor, the source of being, but that He is a sympathizer, 
a being of feeling — feeling for us, feeling ivith us, abso- 



73 



SERMONS. 



lutely interested in everything which wisely interests 
us, a being who knows our whole nature, our present 
wants, our future need, a being absolutely more ready 
to give than we are to ask. " Like as a Father pitieth 
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 
This is the injunction of Him who came from the Father, 
God's Son — came that we too might be sons — that we 
might, when we pray, say " Our Father." Come nest- 
ling home, come believingly, come as a child. 

Is there no clanger of presuming? Yes, very great 
danger; all folly or pride is presuming. But where there 
is humility and love, and submission, and faith, and child- 
likeness, not child/s/mess, but child/^eness — then, there 
can be no presumption. Presumption is possible. When 
you come with some craving out of a carnal heart, when 
you petition for something worldly, something to keep 
up your pride and vanity, something you have lost, but 
which you ought never to have had, something you 
never had, and which you ought never to have, then you 
presume. Because God is a Father, it does not follow 
we should be foolish children, making our prayers an 
abomination. You ask again, are we to bring none of 
our worldly affairs before Him ? Oh yes, all our world- 
ly affairs. Blessed is he who has no affairs which he 
cannot bring before God. You know in this world how 
many of our affairs there are, which are not what God 
has laid on us at all, but which we have laid upon our- 
selves. Look at Martha, anxious about many things. 
Carest thou not that my sister come and help me ? Yes ; 
" but why have so much to do ? " You ask again : Are 
we to be indifferent to our affairs ? Never, never. 
Would that nine out of ten of us were more earnest 
and diligent than we are ? What a blessed world it 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 



79 



would be if there was more fidelity for God's glory ? Are 
there then any of our affairs which press upon us, to 
which God can be indifferent? Not one. That is it. 
If they are thine affairs, then they are God's affairs too. 
Bring them to Him. But in all our asking we should 
always add : " Not my will, but thine be done." I do 
not say it is easy to do. I do not think it is, and this 
shows us, prayer is intended to lift us up to God, rather 
than to bring God down to us. If we are in trouble, does 
God not know it ? Is He not there with us ? " When 
thou passest through the waters I will be with thee." 
It is a blessed thing for some men and women to get 
into real trouble. There is many a one of us, absolute- 
ly not a man or woman at all, until we get into trouble. 
There is a varnish over our manhood, a tinsel outside 
our real gold. God brings trouble sometimes to wear 
it off, to make us seem what we really are. There is a 
wide chasm between some of us, till a great trouble falls 
into, and makes us accessible to each other. It will be 
found in God's kingdom, that out of our apparent mis- 
fortunes sprung our greatest blessings. 

In all our troubles, it is always the faith and submis- 
sion and love of God we need more than the thing we 
pray for. We do presume when we dictate too much 
to God. Israel asked a king, and God gave a king, not 
because he wished to give it, but because it was the 
best that poor, faithless Israel could receive — Balaam. 
God may give us many things we ask for, and yet bring 
leanness into our soul. Is not that contrary to his law 
of love ? Nay, what He gives may be the best we can 
receive. It might only prevent us from being worse off. 
It might delay our destruction and give one chance to 
avert it. We are the measure of our gifts, not God's 



80 



SERMONS. 



love. In a proscribing spirit, we may indeed be worse 
off for our prayers. When we pray God to convert the 
world, we may mean convert it to our particular way 
of thinking. We may not think that we ourselves need 
to be converted to the right. We may pray God to re- 
ward our enemies, or we may ask Him to bless them in 
such a spirit, that God sees we really mean that He will 
do to them as they have done to us, and then our prayer 
is turned into sin. When Christ says, ask what you 
will and it shall be given you, He presupposes it is 
Christian asking. If it is a child you long to see con- 
verted — if it is a heart you wish to win — if it be some 
act of mercy and love, you wish to accomplish, you can- 
not be too importunate. If some great sorrow is at your 
heart, if some longing beats there, you cannot tell to 
another, bring it to God. If some temptation is in your 
path, some fear darkens your way, be not afraid — temp- 
tation is not itself a sin — bring it to God. If some sin 
lies upon your conscience, some denial of Him or His 
cause — if you are out of the way, so that the heavens 
look like brass, that you even cannot pray, bring it to 
God ; He is your best friend, and prayer is your highest 
hope. If you look within you and see there a worldly 
heart ; if you look upon the Church, as most plainly 
you may, and see there worldliness ; if you look out 
upon the world, and see there darkness and cruelty and 
wrong and bitter woe ; if you desire to be a child of 
God, and wish many to share your heritage with you ; 
if you wish to see love and peace upon earth ; if you 
wish to see grace and piety and all that is lovely upon 
earth ; if you wish to see God's will done here as it is 
in heaven, then pray. You cannot be presumptive, you 
cannot be too importunate. What saith He who want- 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 



81 



ed us all to be with Him the true children of God : 
"Knock, and it shall be opened." Knock where? "I 
am the door. My very being here, is pledge to you of 
a Father's love." Knock when? At morning, and 
at noonday, and at night — in the closet, at the fam- 
ily altar, with thy children around thee. Knock 
for what ? " In everything, by prayer and suppli- 
cation make request unto God." Knock how ? Hum- 
bly, submissively, earnestly, perseveringly. Feel that 
God is there ; feel that He will not turn you away. 
Come as a child to a Father, with a big heart and a 
high hope, because you are needy, and sinful and weary, 
and long for a new life. So coming, then, what though 
we be in this wilderness ? there is bread enough and to 
spare. So coming, then, what though we be toiling in 
the darkness, buffeted by the elements? the Master does 
not forget us, He is not only interceding for us, but 
will soon appear, to take us to our rest. So coming, 
then, Sabbath days and all seasons of communion with 
God, will have lifted us further from this world, nearer 
to the Saviour. So coming, we shall feed ourselves on 
things divine, be better guides to others, and glorify 
our Father which is in heaven, and lay up for ourselves 
treasures that are eternal. 



S2 



SERMONS. 



THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Philippians 1: 9. 10, 11. — And this I pray, that your love may abound 
yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment : that ye may approve 
things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till 
the day of Christ ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are 
by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. 

Philippi is supposed to have been the first place in 
Europe in which St. Paul preached the Gospel. From 
some things in this Epistle, it would appear, that the 
Philippians were a people of a somewhat higher culture 
than was usual in those times. Paul was a great fault- 
finder. His vision was so penetrating, he discovered 
all the blemishes, all the omissions and commissions. He 
was so much in earnest, he never failed to point out 
evils, warn the people against them, and exhort them to 
wisdom. This Epistle of his, to the Philippians, differs 
from all the rest of his Epistles, in this respect, that he 
utters no complaint. The relations existing between 
him and them, were of the most endearing nature. There 
was something in the people, which had caused them 
deeply to appreciate the Apostle. Their souls responded 
to the simple richness of his spirit. This veiy Epistle 
was occasioned by an act of kindness. They had heard 
that he was a prisoner. Fearing lest he should suffer 
from want of something their means could afford, they 
sent a messenger with money to administer to his neces- 
sities. This act of theirs was the occasion of his writ- 
ing. It may be supposed, their kindness toward him 
had made him partial toward them, but the probability 



THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



83 



is, their kindness toward him was a proof of their supe- 
rior nature, so that Paul was not blinded by their gift, 
but only made more sensible of the graces and virtues, 
without which the gift itself had not been possible. He 
could say respecting them, I thank my God upon every 
remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, 
for you all, making request with joy : " And this is my 
prayer: that your love may abound yet more and more 
in knowledge and in all judgment ; that ye may approve 
things that are excellent ; that ye may be sincere and 
without offence, till the day of Christ ; being filled with 
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ 
unto the glory and praise of God." 

This is a very comprehensive prayer ; it is worthy of 
such a heart as Paul's. It was not that he cared more 
for them, than he did for his other Churches ; he did not 
reflect so much upon the fact that they cared more for 
him, only, there are souls whose sympathies go out 
toward us, and souls toward whom our sympathies go 
up, and to whom our hearts can make a clearer revela- 
tion of their yearnings. The Apostle wanted to see this 
rich and appreciative nature in them, still richer. He 
desired it to be developed : " I desire that your love 
may abound," i. e., be constantly increasing "your love." 
He must have meant their loving disposition — the spirit 
of love that was in them — the affectionate nature. It 
is surprising how a given spirit will sometimes pervade 
a whole community — a whole church. Towns and con- 
gregations just as much have their dispositions, their 
characters, as individuals. Unhappily it is not always 
a spirit, the essence of which is love. If you run 
through Paul's Epistles to his different churches, you 
will find his tone varying, so as to bear with effect upon 



84 



SERMONS. 



their respective peculiarities. The Romans were a 
proud people. The Corinthians, a worldly-minded, 
skeptical people ; the Galatians, a fitful, irresolute peo- 
ple, and so all the way through. Each had its charac- 
teristic, and so it is still. Some congregations are soci- 
able and friendly ; some are humble and affectionate ; 
some are receptive and charitable; some are worldly 
and trifling ; some are proud and seclusive ; some are 
talkative and gossipy ; some are suspicious and cold ; 
some are captious — never satisfied ; some are enthusi- 
astic, running into ecstacies over nothing ; some are not 
much of anything. Blessed is the people that find the 
man who suits them, and blessed is the man who finds 
the people that suits him, provided they both be of the 
right kind. There can be no suiting, unless both are 
assimilated. If they are both wrong — if a worldly man 
gets into a worldly congregation — there will be woe to 
them and to their children, here and hereafter. Where 
they are both right, there will be mutual joy, full, free 
and deep. To a minister of the Gospel, the recollection 
of the righteous among any congregation he has left, is 
full of peculiar joy, even long years after he has left 
them. Paul said of these people, " I long after you." 
He found in them a people to his mind ; they loved him 
and he loved them, only he desired that this loving dis- 
position of theirs, should not be a negative one. 

This is the peculiar danger of such dispositions : to be 
timid and easy ; to run into routine ; to take things for 
granted ; to verge upon the sentimental; not to realize 
duty, in its steamer aspect; not to be very aggressive. 
When we sometimes meet what is called a loving dispo- 
sition, we feel, if the world were full of such spirits, it 
would be a very sorry world. We should all only drift. 



THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



85 



There is no fire in them, nothing for grand or glorious 
deeds. There is no depth, nor height, nor length, nor 
breadth. If the world went to the bottom, they would 
sigh and think, after all, it were best it should. If the 
whole world were asleep, they would think it better not 
to disturb it. Paul had no desire that the Philippians 
should settle down into this. Christianity was not inten- 
ded for that. Activity and truth are not antagonistic to 
love. Put vigor into the love, and you have what Paul 
was himself, and it was very natural he should desire 
these Christians to be like him. He had been striving 
to realize his own ideal. His Master before him, was 
his model. A loving disposition, was the very best 
kind of a disposition, if it lighted, and warmed a whole 
Christian manhood. Take a loving disposition abound- 
ing in positive qualities, and there is nothing nobler. It 
is the beginning of an archangel. " I pray that your 
love may abound more and more," but I desire that its 
increase shall be in knowledge and in all judgment. In 
St. Peter we have this passage : " Add to your faith, 
virtue, or manliness, and to manliness, knowledge." 

You observe how both these Apostles agree in this, 
how they contemplated Christianity, as going down to 
the foundations of our being, pervading and quickening 
our whole nature. Peter says: "Add to your faith 
knowledge." Paul says : let your love increase in know- 
ledge — knowledge of God, knowledge of ourselves, of 
nature, of this humanity in its capabilities and wants, 
of art, of science, of all that God hath done. What 
worlds would open to many of us, if we could spend 
our time in learning something. How we should cease 
to want amusement. How Ave should no longer be 
clothed in levity and folly, but in truth and wisdom. 



86 



SERMONS. 



The Savionr said, we should love God not only with all 
our heart and all our soul, but with all our mind. Paul 
says, let your love increase in knowledge. To this he 
adds, " and in all judgment." The word he uses here 
for judgment, is peculiar, and expresses rather what we 
express by our phrase, " common sense" understanding. 
It is a word which conveys a very important idea, per- 
haps more important to us to-day than to those to whom 
Paul immediately wrote it. You will find in your mar- 
gin, for the word, sense. I desire that your love in- 
crease in knowledge and sense. They are far from be- 
ing the same thing. Many a man knows a great deal, 
who has not sense enough to know, whether, what he 
knows, is worth knowing, As a general thing, our 
Christian knowledge runs in single veins. Owing to 
the peculiar condition of our Christianity at this moment, 
we are not educated, which means that our powers be 
developed, so that we shall be able to think and know 
something for ourselves — so much as we are Educated, 
if I might use the word. Something is crowded into 
us. When we are full, we are supposed to have know- 
ledge, but we do not pause to consider of what kind it 
is, what it all amounts to, what it is worth, what it en- 
ables us to do. This word of Paul's embraces the whole 
idea of the practical — of that which is wise, discreet, 
available. A doctor may know by heart the materia 
medica, and yet not be able to write a proper prescrip- 
tion. A lawyer may know all the codes, and yet not 
be able to manage a case in court. A minister of the 
Gospel may know all the fathers and the history of the 
Church, the decrees of councils and the work of the 
Middle Ages, and yet be all the worse for his know- 
ledge ; he may have nothing to apply to his times — 



THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



87 



nothing that is religion — nothing that anybody wants, 
or ought to have, even if they want it. This is, unhap- 
pily, too much our condition. We accept without inqui- 
ry, that to which, by our birth or other accidents, we 
become accustomed. A Romanist follows the teachings 
of the Church ; he administers his holy water ; counts 
his beads; runs through the requirements of his faith. 
Suppose he should pause to do as Paul bids us all do, 
exercise judgment, common sense — ask how it is pos- 
sible for things to be as he is told they are — his common 
sense would break up his creed. If any of us should 
grow thoughtful, and exercise sense, and ask the mean- 
ing of much to which we are accustomed, it would work 
a revolution in our religion — e. g., why so many divis- 
ions of Christianity ? When millions know nothing 
of the Gospel at all, why so many men, each preaching a 
peculiar doctrine ? What is the use of our peculiarities, 
even if they have foundation in some reality ? What 
do we gain thereby ? What does man gain by them ? 
Where is their wisdom ? Why do we build so many 
churches, to be occupied only a few hours out of every 
week, when, if we would worship at different hours, 
one church would do for all. Why do we do it, espe- 
cially when so many poor are in want of bread ? When 
a town wants schools, and libraries, and lyceums, and 
lecture rooms — when so many agencies are crying to us 
for help, and we always complain that money is so 
scarce ? How, with all our religion and churches, we 
still work against each other ! Suppose we ask our- 
selves, What though the world be covered with beauti- 
ful churches, if man be vile, if God be not worshiped 
in spirit and truth? What though we have infinite 
creeds, if nobody really believes, if mammon govern us, 



88 



SERMONS. 



if passion and pride and folly be the rule of our lives. 
If where piety and humility — brotherly love and rich 
heart-culture and every virtue ought to be, 'there is only 
vanity and show, what is the use of so much religious 
machinery ? If we should stop to define real religion, 
and then define what passes for religion, the definition 
would bring us to our senses. We should have some 
sense in our religion. If we should exercise our senses, 
that would bring us to make definitions, and we should 
get much nearer to a unity than we are. 

That this is embraced in Paul's meaning, is evident 
from the next clause. I desire that you abound in 
knowledge and judgment, for this reason, " that you 
may approve things that are excellent," literally, " that 
you may try things that differ," that you may find out 
the elements amid which you live, and assimilate the 
best. Who of us could do that? I verily believe, 
brethren, that notwithstanding our attachment to our 
respective churches, our devotion is rather negative 
than positive — more out of our ignorance than out of 
our knowledge. First of all, a very large proportion of 
our religion is mere attachment to church organization. 
Then we know verv little about that, about our real 
doctrines, the reasons we have for things. Very few 
Episcopalians can give a good reason for bowing the 
head in the creed. You will very often be amazed at 
the absence of anything like large information upon 
very simple and common subjects. There are few of 
us that could not be argued out of what we have thought 
we believed for years, if a stronger and better informed 
mind encountered ours. That is the reason why men 
change their creeds. They knew nothing of their old 
creed. They know nothing of their new one. They 



THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



89 



will soon be ready for a new change. We do not try 
things that differ. It would not be safe for some of us 
to try. Cut us loose from where we are, and we would 
be adrift, unballasted, blown about by every wind of 
doctrine. We have no mind-force to move us toward 
any real haven. We are not weaned from our senses — 
from mere habit. I do not wonder people guard 
their pulpits the way they do, that they so jealously 
watch the lips of their appointed teachers and raise a 
cry the moment a new idea comes in. Methodist, Puri- 
tan, Quaker. Why, we will not let our teachers teach. 
We go fast enough, where knowledge and sense do not 
lead ; no extravagance, no absurdity gives us pause. 
With all our religion and churches, we have no time to de- 
vote to real subjects of the rich and deep things of God. 
We have no reason for any hope that is in us. I some- 
times try to conceive what the general idea of heaven 
is. I conclude there is no idea. If there be, it excludes 
mind and common sense, it robs eternity of all dignity 
and worth, for there is nothing to do. It will be im- 
possible to tie the kingdom above, down to our limita- 
tions, as we try to do here — down to mere bodily sense ; 
and so some of us will lose our heaven for we shall leave 
it behind us. " I desire that your love may abound in 
knowledge and sense that ye may try things that differ," 
in other words, that ye may know something, and that 
you may inquire and select and get the best, dwell in 
such love and intercourse that you may compare notes 
one with another and so aid each other. But the Apostle 
goes on : " That ye may be sincere and without offence? 
Both these words are very forcible and peculiar. The 
word translated sincere, is compounded of two words, 
one meaning sunlight, and the other discrimination ; lit- 



90 



SERMONS. 



erally, to be put in the sunlight and found pure and 
bright. It goes down into the very recesses of being. 
It drags up motive. It demands transparency. I do 
not think transparency of character and action is con- 
sidered a Christian grace. We, at any rate, assert that 
we do not practice it, by always inferring a motive in 
others, other than that avowed. 

I do not know that all do it, but I think you will all 
agree, that there is too much suspicion — too much fear 
that we have an underhanded motive. And this might 
arise from our practice, which is wrong and unchristian, 
of concealing our motives, even in things themselves 
perfectly right and lawful. We do not wish people to 
know our business, and yet they do know it, too much 
of it — take pains to find it out. We give ourselves too 
much trouble as to what others think about us. We 
are not aware how much we are slaves to other people's 
notions, and that must be why they have so many no- 
tions of us, because they know we mind them. We 
have nothing to do with what anybody thinks of us. 
We are only to know that we are pure and right. Let 
people think what they please. " That ye may be sin- 
cere," viewed in the sunlight and found pure. What a 
blessing would absolute manliness, Christian courage, 
true independence be ! How free is such a man ! 
How loved of God ! Sincere. Suppose we examine 
ourselves. Why have we been to church to-day ? Was 
it custom ? Was it curiosity ? Was it amusement ? 
Was it fear of what others would say if we staid home ? 
Was it love of God, to worship Him. Whatever it was, 
when we were here, did we worship ? Did He who 
seeth the heart, know that you prayed ? Was there no 
formality ? This word sincere, even in our English has 



THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 91 

a peculiar meaning because a peculiar origin. It is 
composed of two Latin words, " Sine" without ; "cere" 
wax — without wax. In old times, people used to write 
notes to each other, and tie a string around them, and 
seal the ends of the string with wax. When friends 
were intimate, and open-hearted toward each other, 
they folded the letter, and, leaving off the string and 
wax simply wrote the word " sincere." Without form- 
ality, without any make believe, my heart to your heart. 
I heartily wish there were no string and wax in religion, 
or society, or anywhere else. There ought not to be 
among Christians. Instead of adding more to our relig- 
ion and to our intercourse with each other, we ought to 
strip it of much that is. Christian purity, pure Christi- 
anity, will of necessity tend to simplicity, not to cere- 
mony, and formality. Ceremony eats the core out of 
soul. There can be no soul where there is ceremo- 
ny. At any rate, soul and ceremony are in inverse 
proportions. Our world is dead of ceremony. It goes 
to church with us ; it abides in our homes. It carries 
us to our graves. It mourns for us afterwards. There 
cannot be anything of it in heaven. If there is, heaven 
is not heaven. Oh ! to be rid of it ; to be free ! We 
can be, we ought to be. Paul wished the Philippians to 
be. Jesus had no ceremony. What a figure that is 
— that Son of God standing in the majesty of a match- 
less simplicity ! Oh ! to be like Him. 

Christians, you cannot be " harmless " or " without 
offence " if you are not sincere. This phrase, without 
offence, is also a compound word in the original. It 
means " not a stumblingblock :" It does not mean that 
you simply pass through the world not being yourself 
offended. It recognizes the duty — the very object of a 



92 



SERMONS. 



Christian — to be a light, a guide, a helper of souls to- 
wards heaven. It implies something to do — a life-work. 
There are two kinds of lights — true beacons and wreck- 
ers lights : sometimes, when wicked men wish to destroy 
a ship, they build a fire on the strand ; a false light 
shines as well as a true one ; the unskilled mariner is 
lured to his destruction. Such a light is a ceremonious, 
half-hearted Christian ; and oh, brethren, how many of 
us, by ignorance, by thoughtlessness, by neglect, by 
worldliness, by insincerity, by endless mistakes, are 
luring others into danger. God would not have it so. 
It does not grow out of your religion, but out of your 
want of religion. The Saviour wants you close to him, 
in thought, in discretion, in sincerity. What a richness 
there is in all true being ! What a glorified condition 
must that be in which every soul is full of knowledge, 
full of wisdom, full of love unfeigned. What a condi- 
tion must that be when all is real. Such is heaven. 
God wants you and me to be such souls, that we may 
enter that heaven. Oh, what a God is our God, and 
oh, what a glory it must be to be His child. Christ 
came to show us what such a child is ; he set us an ex- 
ample that we may follow His steps. God wants us to 
be such here below ; that ye may be sincere and with- 
out offence till the day of Christ. This expression, " till 
the day of Christ," might just as well be " to the day of 
Christ" or even " in the day of Christ" i. e., in this your 
Christian day, through this day in which our Christian 
work is all to be done. The idea, however, at last is 
the same ; clear this life, up to the day in which life will 
be closed, and Christ will come to take you to the land 
of reward — the home for glorified souls — till He shall 
come to pronounce upon our work — the degree in which 



THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



93 



it has been clone to Him, " to the glory and praise of 
God." This is the summing up of Paul's prayer — this 
its fullness — that we may be filled with the fruits of 
righteousness — rather laden — as a tree with fruits — 
laden with righteous fruit — which are "by Jesus Christ" 
by faith in His name, by trust in His redeeming love, 
by imitation of His example, by love and devotion to 
Him, by longing to be with Him, to enter into His rest, 
by the power of His spirit, for we can do nothing of 
ourselves — by the efficacy of His intercession, by His 
divine grace, " to the praise and glory of God." This 
is the consummation of it all — this is what we are cre- 
ated for — God's glory, God's praise. This is why we 
are left here to work, to chasten ourselves, and mould 
our hearts ; that by our works, this world, this whole 
race, may be brought to salvation, to know the true 
God and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent — this whole 
race be lifted to the privileges we enjoy ourselves, and 
all be made sons of God. This, then, is my message to 
you to-day — a higher life — "nearer, my God, to thee — 
nearer to thee." We are called from darkness to light — 
called to the power of spiritual resurrection. Oh, breth- 
ren, it is worth striving for, and the day is very short ; 
the reckoning will soon come. Let us then strive and 
strive lawfully — strive according to God's own plan. If 
we keep the faith we shall have the crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give 
us at that day, and not to us only, but unto all them 
that love his appearing. 



94 



SERMONS. 



THE VICTORY OVER SIN. 

1 Corinthians 15 : 56, 57. — The sting of death is sin, and the strength of 
sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

This fifteenth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the 
Corinthians is too well known to Christians generally, to 
render any minute explanation necessary. The Apos- 
tle begins with a partial expression of the Gospel, with 
evidences of facts relating to Christ, and particularly 
with those respecting the resurrection. From this he 
seeks to establish the fact of our resurrection, and closes, 
in the glowing exultation of a soul already alive in the 
blissful hope of immortality. 

The great fact of the resurrection of Christ from the 
dead, is, throughout the civilized world, to-day, the one 
absorbing thought and theme. In all languages, among 
all tribes, there is to-day the throb of a higher life. 
Spirits, strangers to each other, are quickened by simi- 
lar emotions, and participate in the same universal joy.' 

It is a pleasant thought, that amid all the vocations, 
ambitions, and struggles of life, religion, the idea of a 
future, never dies. Wherever man inhabits, under all 
that is outward, above all that is transient, swells the 
thought of an endless existence. Men instill the thought 
into their children. They give life to keep it alive. 

But in four hundred millions of our race to-day the 
same thought, upon a loftier level, is connected with 
this one being, Jesus Christ. Patiently, as the year 



THE VICTORY OVER SIN. 



95 



revolves, we contemplate Him, in His wonderful incar- 
nation. We follow Him in His instruction, His life, 
His connection with all time, His grasp of all being. 
We stand humiliated, in the face of our meanness, as 
compared with the majesty of His greatness. From 
the depths of the contrast, spring the foundations of 
hope. Though so unworthy, we are still worth saving. 
There is death in us, but there is life in Him. We see 
this lower nature smite Him, and trample on Him, and 
bury Him. Over us, over what we call nature, over 
death itself, there comes a triumph. Through the gloom 
of mortal ignorance, sin and wrong, across all doubt and 
uncertainty, away beyond the grave, from the shores of 
the "better land," comes the assurance of an endless life. 
Christ is risen from the dead. As in Adam all die, 
even so in Him, shall all be made alive. 

This is the thought the Apostle would impress : 
"Christ is risen" and become the " first fruits" of them 
that slept. The rifled tomb proclaims, there is no death 
in any such sense as annihilation, or ceasing to exist. What- 
ever truly is, forever is. To prove this absolutely, by 
human logic, is impossible. We have not the elements 
of an absolute proof, or if we have we are incapable of 
so combining them. But resurrection is written in 
universal nature. Preservation of all things that are, is 
as wonderful as original creation, itself. To everything 
there is an essence that never dies. It changes its 
form, but preserves its identity. The spring-time with 
its flowers ; the ages with their myriad reproductions, 
combine with the beatings of the human heart, and tell 
us of immortality. Before Christ came, from periods 
very remote, men believed in a human resurrection. 

To stop to prove the fact of Christ's resurrection 



96 



SERMONS. 



would now be a work of supererogation. We do not 
need it. But that fact in itself, does not absolutely 
prove our resurrection. It would if we knew all the 
connections, but those are just the items unknown to 
us. We cannot say, because He rose, therefore we shall 
rise. We can say this, as Paul says : " If Christ be 
preached that He rose from the dead, how say some 
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead." 
" If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ 
not risen." But if Christ be risen, then we can certain- 
ly say, resurrection is not impossible. There is such a 
thing as resurrection, whether we are to have part and 
lot in it or not. Now when we combine the utterances 
of nature, the voice of the ages, the longings of the 
heart, the teachings of Jesus, with the fact of the resur- 
rection, — then we can say : " As in Adam all die, even 
so in Him shall all be made alive." Here is the point 
of the resurrection — it proves that Christ was true. 
The evidence is cumulative. The proof, to the eye of 
faith, is conclusive. The value of the resurrection of 
Christ is, it is an example, a practical illustration. It 
sets at rest conjecture. It crowns all evidence with a 
fact. It never-more can be rationally said, that there is 
no resurrection of the dead. If Christ said there would 
be a resurrection, and proved Himself true by His res- 
urrection, then there will be a resurrection. Let us 
bold fast this idea, for it is the clearest certainty to us 
of immortality. 

But to what extent is this fact, when established, a 
consolation to us ? All are to rise — the just and the 
unjust — they that have been wise, to a resurrection of 
life, and they that have been unwise, to a resurrection 
of condemnation. You see there, hanging over that 



THE VICTORY OVER SIN. 



97 



fact, other and greater facts. What is the value of the 
assurance of an undying future, if that future, by any 
possibility to any of us, should be an undying remorse? 
Is existence so precious in itself, that it can be coveted, 
even though its continuance were a misfortune ? You 
see, the death and resurrection of Christ must have a 
force and significance, over and above the mere letter. 
If we confine ourselves to that, there is as much there 
still to consume us, as there is to comfort us. Myriads 
of beings would be delighted to know just the reverse, 
of all this fact proves — would be delighted to know there 
were no future, no hereafter. 

From the crucifixion and grave of Christ, you learn, 
that dying and burial are not death. From the resurrec- 
tion and ascension of Christ, you learn, that mere exist- 
ence is not life. Over all that God has done, still swells 
the great truth that man's responsibility is forever the 
same. If we are to exist forever, it is of infinite im- 
portance to us that we should know it. If that future is 
to be what we make it, it is of eternal importance to us 
that we make it as wisdom would have it, and that we 
be taught what wisdom is. There is the goodness of 
God in sending His Son to save us from our sins. That 
is the voice of the incarnation, the whole of it, with all 
it included. God would reveal to us the real life ever- 
lasting. There is the universal fact of death. We 
cannot resist it, or by any possibility escape it. There 
is the eternal fact of future existence. We cannot by 
any possibility escape that. The one is as fixed as the 
other. When we lie down in the grave ourselves — 
when we lay our beloved ones there, we can be as certain 
of another world, as we are of this. But what of that 
world ? That is the question. What are we ? Are 



98 



SERMONS. 



we walking in light as God is in the light, with the 
sons of God, or moving in the outer darkness, where 
there is but unrest and bitterness ? God is reconciled 
to us. Are we reconciled to Him ? If not, we are in 
our sin. There is a " sting" to death. " That sting of 
death is still sin." You see that. Take the wickedest 
man in the world. When he comes down to die, he 
still believes he cannot altogether die. He wishes too 
to live, and knows that whether he wishes it or not he 
must. Nature, being, as God has made it, asserts itself. 
Man not only clings to existence, but feels it will cling 
to him. Not only is there a sense of continued exist- 
ence, but at the same time also, a sense of guilt. The 
one is as natural as the other, a feeling, a consciousness, 
not under our control, a part of our nature. There may 
be degrees of sin, as when a man dieth, as the brute dieth, 
" without bands in their death " — asking nothing of the 
past or of the future, insensible alike to life or death, 
but that is, if possible, the most hopeless of all death. 
It is an insensibility hardly human, and fortunately for 
us, seldom reached. But the most of us have a con- 
science, a foreboding of judgment, a feeling in us of 
shame, of fear. We have no friend. We go alone. 
The essence of guilt, guilt itself, if you analyze it, is 
not something in which God mercilessly wraps us. It 
is an instant consequence of transgression. Nature is 
her own police force. Adam disobeyed God. What 
then ? He instantly slunk away and hid himself. He 
placed himself under arrest. Your child transgresses. 
What then ? It is instantly afraid of you, the best 
friend it has. The instant effect of sin is, it makes us 
feel, God is our enemy. It asserts a lie, a cloud rises, a 
feeling that we call guilt, a worm and fire in us. But 



THE VICTORY OVER SIN. 



99 



God has not changed at all. He is just the same. 
What then is the matter ? Why, we have transgressed, 
disobeyed. Transgressed what and disobeyed what? 
Why, a law, the law, an arrangement of God, the con- 
stitution of nature, the right thing. You see how guilt at 
once asserts a righteousness, a law of right. You see 
how the Gospel, in speaking of the law, does not mean the 
Mosaic law, but all law, this law of right. That law is 
still there. It hangs over you. It cannot be broken, 
or annihilated, or removed. Endless worlds hang upon 
it. It has strength. No conspiracy, no ingenuity, no 
power can destroy it. There it stands. It does noth- 
ing, only to try to resist it, is to be instantly stricken 
with a feeling of unworthiness, of shame, of fear, to 
have that grim law, between the transgressor and God. 
Violate the law of noble manliness. It is a good law. 
Do a mean thing and then you feel mean. The law 
itself strikes you with condemnation. The sense of 
guilt is the voice of warning, the alarm of danger. 
Suppose God is love. Suppose He forgives all the time. 
What of it, if He is beyond that barrier, and the spirit 
feels He is its enemy? That is what guilt does -for us, 
makes us misconceive God, blinds us. Tells us God is 
something which He is not. It surrounds Him with 
fires and thunderbolts and wrath. And when the soul 
looks down into the grave, and beyond that, into the 
fathomless darkness of death, it shrinks, and real death 
is there with its sting, goading the spirit into an unut- 
terable wretchedness. " The sting of death is sin." 
A consciousness of sin, a God offended, no way of escape, 
that is it, which makes death so ghastly, the coffin and 
the grave so utterly repulsive. That it is which makes 
us shrink back from ourselves, from existence itself. 



100 



SERMONS. 



"The sting of death is sin/' and "the strength of sin 
is the law." The law is good enough ; the law is need- 
ful. What said the Saviour : Heaven and earth could 
pass away sooner than that a jot or tittle of the law 
could fail — and so it would, for if the law could fail, 
then heaven and earth would pass away. He had not 
come to destroy the law, nay, but to magnify and make 
it honorable. The law has strength ; it is the cohesive 
force of the universe ; take it away, and all is chaos. 
It is because it is needful, that it is strong, and because 
it is strong, it must hold its way, though a myriad souls 
are crushed by its power. Salvation, is to be in har- 
mony with it. He who thinks that Christ rendered it 
inoperative, misunderstands Christ ; he who thinks that 
faith in Christ can justify disobedience, has no faith. 
Christ changed nothing ; he brought a new law to our know- 
ledge. Obedience to the new law, changes our relations 
to the old law. The whole change effected by Christ, 
must be in the sinner, or else there is no change ; hence 
it is, that while the Gospel is for every one, it is for him 
that believeth. " Whosoever will may partake of the 
waters .of life," but, if he would have life, he must par- 
take ; he must be born from above. '* Neither circumcis- 
ion availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
creature." 

Christ does not save by any arbitrary efficacy, or di- 
vine feat. There is no such thing, for all divine action 
is by law. Christ saves, by putting into the sinner that 
which is in Him, or, otherwise to express it, the sinner 
is saved by putting on Christ ; what Christ was ; be- 
coming a fulfiller of the law : " He that hath the Son of 
Qod, hath life." Faith is perceiving, accepting, apply- 
ing. Any one of us is saved only as — precisely to that ex- 



THE VICTORY OVER SIN. 



101 



tent to which — we understand and obey Christ. If there 
were such a thing as an arbitrary efficacy in Christ, 
then all men would be saved, and then too moral nature 
would be gone. But because moral nature is still left, 
and there is no such thing as arbitrary efficacy, man is 
saved by faith, and faith is, rising into Christ, and be- 
ing what Christ in His being showed us what to be. 
This is the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. But 
faith is victory. We are victors — we must overcome. 
The law which Christ brought in was the law of paren- 
tal authority or, if you view it from the other end, the 
law of filial obedience. Sin is ignorance of law and hos- 
tility to it. Religion is, knowledge of law and obedience 
to it. Man in all ages has neglected to study, to learn. 
When by any means knowledge has come, he has pre- 
ferred that which was pleasant, to that which was wise, 
that which was dogmatical, to that which was true. We 
Christians of to-day are making religion, custom and 
doctrine, not truth and life. Thus he has destroyed 
himself — he has considered the law a taskmaster, his 
enemy. But because it was fixed, his refusal to obey 
it, made it a taskmaster and turned it into his enemy. 
He ran point-blank against it ; something had to yield ; 
the law was strong, and he was crushed. Now the Sa- 
viour comes in and says — recognize the law, realize its 
strength, obey it, find it out — learn of me — and you at 
once invert all relations, and the law is henceforth your 
slave — you are master. Put my yoke on, and you find 
rest to your soul. Remember, God is your Father. All 
that is, is calculated for your good. Be His child and 
love Him, and then you instantly outstrip the law and 
anticipate all good. You swallow up the first in the 
power of the second. The law of love in Christ, sets you 



102 



SERMONS. 



free from the law of sin and death, by taking you out of 
your antagonism to it. It has not changed nature, but 
it has changed you. There is a renovation in you — a 
new life. Before Christ, there stands the law with its 
code in one hand, and the rod of correction in the other ; 
man grumbling, doing just as little as he could, and be- 
ing chastised at every step. In Christ then is the code, 
but its enactments are anticipated — its will is done with- 
out its speaking. The rod is annihilated, because it is 
useless. In Christ, man is not a passive agent, acted 
upon; but a being, active, combining all law into a force, 
lifting him into the dignity of a son of God. Before 
Christ, the law is penalty, and prison-house, and death. 
In Christ, all law is school, and culture, and rich devel- 
opment ; it is truth and freedom. In the family, the 
disobedient child requires rules and correction. The 
loving child, anticipates all rules, and the rod is un- 
known. In society, the criminal is the victim of the 
law. The honest citizen is set free from the law. The 
useful citizen is its guardian protector, and even its 
maker. The wisest people have the shortest code, not 
that they know the fewest laws, but that they know 
most laws. The law is written in their heart. You are 
not afraid of the police ; you are so for above them, it 
even seems strange to you, anybody should so live as to 
make a police needful. Out of Christ, the sinner is de- 
stroying himself. In Christ, man, poor and frail as he 
seems, becomes a co-worker with God, and is making 
for himself a heritage with all that is eternally glorified. 
The divine law is written in his heart. Like the Sa- 
viour, he delights to do God's will. Love is the fulfill- 
ing of the law. The rod and the code grow useless and 
die ; the soul grows stronger and lives. It has van- 



THE VICTORY OVER SIN. 



103 



quished the law. A perfect love has cast out all 
fear. There is victory. Does this, then, throw any- 
light upon these words: "The sting of death is sin, 
and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, 
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." Suppose it should have to be said to you to- 
day : " Thou shalt not steal." What a reflection it 
would be upon your condition ! What a thrill it sends 
through you, to even think of it. Suppose you should, 
practically, in earnest, have to say so to your child, how 
it would grieve you ! How it must grieve God to have 
to say this to His own offspring ! But when it was 
needful for Him to say it, how merciful in Him to step 
in and write it for our instruction! Do you see, how 
even Moses himself was only part of the eternal love of 
the everlasting Father? Do you see, how man hath 
been all along under only one dispensation, and that a 
dispensation of mercy ? How Moses was a schoolmas- 
ter to bring us to Christ ? Do you see, that if Moses 
is a hard taskmaster, it is because we were degraded 
slaves? The law says, "thou shalt not steal," "thou 
shalt not murder." Jesus says, " thou shalt love thine 
enemies and do good to them that hate you." " The 
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by 
Jesus Christ." 

In Moses we were servants ; in Jesus we are sons. 
In Moses, under a law which proclaimed our degrada- 
tion. In Jesus, in a law which asserts our exaltation. 
Now, suppose it be needful for any voice from God to 
come in to-clay and say to you, " my son, give me thy 
heart," are you born again? Have you any victory? 
What does that imply with respect to you ? Suppose 
you are buried up, not under the old decalogue, but un- 



104 



SERMONS. 



der worldliness and selfishness, under vanity, and 
earthly, and carnal indulgence, under idleness and use- 
lessness, though you have escaped from Moses, have 
you entered into Christ. If you have escaped from the 
swine, have you got home to your Father's house ? 
Do you see what the cross means, what the death of 
Christ means, that the old, carnal, earthly manhood must 
be crucified ; that, to save a life, you must lose a life ; 
that the old manhood must be buried, and the new 
manhood raised? Do you see what the resurrection 
means, that we must leave the oldness of the letter and 
enter upon the newness of the spirit ? Do you see what 
Paul means, when he says : " Christ, our Passover, is 
sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast — not 
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, hut with the un- 
leavened bread of sincerity and truth . ? " It was needful 
that Jesus should be crucified, that we might know the 
depth of the meanness there was in us — the meanness 
that placed him there. Think of a race that could 
crucify such a being. It was needful that we might 
know that no depth of meanness in us could exhaust 
the riches of His heavenly love. It behoved Him to 
be obedient even unto the death of the cross. It was 
needful that He should rise again that he might pro- 
claim the fact and power of an endless life — that he 
who is obedient and loving and faithful and true, hath 
life, hath it abundantly, hath it eternally, is victor over 
all law, all death ; that death has no more sting, and 
the grave no more victory, but that the child of God is 
glorified forever ; that the service of God is perfect 
freedom. Do you see the victory which looms up 
through all time for this world, and through eternity in 
the world to come — victory over self, over wrong, over 



THE VICTORY OVER SIN. 



105 



all evil, over ignorance, all that is negative and sensual 
and earthly ; victory in knowledge, in virtue, in grace, 
in peace — in all that can truly elevate and glorify. 
Death hath no more dominion ! Do you see how the 
fact of the incarnation, gives you a mission upon earth, 
and calls you out of darkness into light ? Can you see 
how resurrection must be a fact — not merely for our 
day, but a fact perpetual through time and through 
eternity ? A fact in you and in me, or else we cannot 
ascend to our Father in heaven ? And can you to-day, 
in view of what you would have been without Jesus, 
and in view of what you might be by Him, exclaim as 
Paul did—" Thanks be to God ?" If, out of the full- 
ness of a rejoicing spirit, you can say that, to-day, then 
the grave may be there, and the law may be there, but 
you have already risen, you have entered into life. 
When you contemplate your dying hour, and think 
upon God, there is no shudder of fear, no thrill of con- 
demnation — the forerunner is there, the advocate is 
there, the crown of life is ready. Yes, when we close 
the eyes of our loved ones, and lay them away in the 
dust, there is no death — " Thanks be to God." The 
dying hour is the messenger which God hath sent to 
welcome us to Himself — " Thanks be to God." We 
never can be thankful enough for that blessed life, that 
blessed death, that glorious resurrection. We have 
victory through Jesus Christ. Death is swallowed — 
Heaven is opened. We and our Father are one. 

But there is the point, whether we have entered into 
this life. When we look around this world in its dark- 
ness, its selfishness and its sin, when we contemplate 
the quarrelling, the fraud, the envy, the vice and all 
wrong, under which our race groans, when we realize 



106 



SERMONS. 



the loneliness and unrest, which broods upon life, we 
feel there has yet been in man, as a race, no true resur- 
rection. The law is still the strength of sin, and sin is 
still the sting of death. The law is weak, because we 
can never compel a soul. The one want to the human 
heart, is this law of love. To that alone all good is 
possible. When we contemplate the Church, that uni- 
versal body, made up of what we call believers ; when 
we behold the vast machinery, the endless outward 
signs of respect and reverence for the name of Jesus ; 
and then reflect that it is yet early, the day of life 
not yet dawned ; we must feel that we are like that 
band of hearts which went on the first Easter to an 
empty grave, to "find a risen Christ." We cannot help 
feeling that somehow, with all our love, we have made 
a mistake. With all our affectionate preparations for 
embalming, what is it we would embalm but a dead 
body after all ? And does this world want that ? And 
no wonder as we go, we have misgivings, and endless 
problems start up before us, and we say to ourselves, 
" Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of 
the sepulchre V Brethren, we are to-day, and long 
have been, looking back into- the grave of the past and 
seeking our Christ from there. The great evil which 
afflicts the Church to-day, is the fact that she would 
have only an embalmed and historic Christ. We look 
back, and behold Christ is not where we have laid 
Him. It is not possible that He should be holden of 
death — a voice comes from the cave and says, He is 
not here. Go tell my disciples the Lord is risen, and 
bid them seek a living Christ. If we could lift our 
eyes and realize that thought, and it is a thought I 
would like to leave with you to-day, that ours is a living 



THE VICTORY OVER SIN. 



107 



Christ, a Christ that is with us always — then our eyes 
would be opened, and we should know Him and the 
power of his resurrection. The news would spread, 
unbelief would die, joy would thrill through our world, 
and Christ, risen and glorified, would once more go in 
and out among us, in sweet and peaceful communion — 
our whole manhood would be raised up into a new life, 
and then would be joy along all our world. This is 
the thought that we want to realize, that we must have 
Him to live with us, and live in us here, if we are to 
live with Him hereafter. To realize what it is for us 
to live in Him, and have Him live in us, is the one 
work that you and I have to do, upon earth. That we 
may, under the banner of His love, through all duties 
and trials of life, amid all its chances and changes, go 
on to do it, is the one prayer that wells up from my 
heart to-day. It is to this living Christ I have tried 
all along to lead you, to whom I believe I am trying 
myself to come, and in whom and with whom I trust, 
when all the chances and changes of this mortality are 
ended, we shall all stand together forever. May all our 
Lents and all our Easters, and all the experiences and 
vicissitudes of life, only build us up more and more 
into the likeness of Him who died and rose again, into 
that blessed likeness which shall make us heirs of God. 
And now, brethren, we are about to celebrate the death 
and passion of our Saviour Christ, in the memorial He 
hath commanded us to make. Our communion is the 
expression of our faith in Him, as an all-sufficient Sa viour. 
It is an act of thankfullness for the love wherewith He 
loved us, and a promise of service and perseverance so 
long as life shall last. Is there one of you who has 
not some hope through that crucified Christ ? 



108 



SERMONS. 



" Was not for all, the victim slain ? 
Is one forbid the children's bread?" 

It has been our privilege to thread a few steps in our 
life-journey together. We look out to-day across a little 
span of time, upon a future which we trust will be ours 
together forever. Let us come together, then, in this 
expression of our common faith — our common purpose — 
our common hope. Let us come together in a prayer 
for each other, that we may be kept from the evil which 
is in the world — that we may be fed with the truth as 
it is in Jesus, and be built up as lively stones in the 
eternal temple — so that, whether life be long or short, 
one by one, we may be victors over sin and death, and 
stand with Christ in that kingdom which shall know no 
end. 

All " who are religiously and devoutly disposed," I 
earnestly invite to come and be partakers with us in 
this communion. 



TRUTH. 



Mark 4 : 24. — And He said unto them, Take heed what ye hear. With 
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you : and unto you that hear 
shall more be given. 

Our Lord had been uttering sublime truths in the 
shape of parables. He perceived that even His disciples 
did not understand Him. He then turns to speak con- 
cerning the nature and object of truth ; He calls it light. 
Its nature is progressive and diffusive ; its object is the 
benefit and convenience of man. 



TRUTH. 



109 



The word truth, whilst it expresses one thing, is used 
to express that thing under two different relations, 
Truth objectively expresses all that is, the laws and re- 
lations of things — the whole infinity of reality as God 
has made it. Truth subjectively expresses that portion 
of the whole, which we have acquired or received, our 
aggregate knowledge of the all-real. Nature expresses 
both the landscape, and the eye that sees the landscape. 
Wealth expresses the whole sea of riches, and also that 
portion we have individually secured. By means of the 
wealth we have, we acquire more. The eye most famil- 
iar with nature, sees most in nature. I do not mean, 
that the farmer who looks upon the landscape every day, 
sees most of the landscape. The farmer sees the farm. 
I mean, the mind most responsive to nature, sees farth- 
est into nature. The soul that has most truth, will re- 
ceive most truth. Truth, in the sense of our aggregate 
knowledge, is to be held up, set upon a candlestick, that 
it might give light to the whole household. Such a use 
of it will reveal the things, that around us open the 
whole domain of being to us. " There is nothing hid 
which shall not be manifested — neither was anything kept 
secret but that it should come abroad." This is the ob- 
ject God hath in the universe, that His children should 
know it, and be blessed in it. 

The words following here, and immediately preceding 
the text, are those so often recurring in the discourses 
of the Master : " If any man have ears to hear, let him 
hear." Perhaps, as He gazed into those faces, He saw 
something which told Him, He was much beyond their 
depth, or some shade of incredulity, which as much as 
said He was mistaken. Ignorance always undertakes 
to pronounce in some way against wisdom. So, He vir- 



110 



SERMONS. 



tually says, I know some of you do not know what I am 
talking about. Yet it is necessary that I try to instruct 
you. Some of you have an inkling of what I am say- 
ing ; therefore receive as much as you can, that so you 
may be enabled to receive more. " Take heed what 
you hear." According to the culture within you, you 
will receive or reject my words. All will be measured 
to you in exactly the same measure you bring. To you 
that hear, will more be given. 

These words, like all the utterances of the Master, 
contain a germinal thought. They express a root idea ; 
they go down to the bottom of things — enter into the 
essence of cause and effect. Truth was made for man ; 
man was made for truth. Light was made for the eye ; 
the eye was made for light. The glory of the moral 
being is to develop into the full stature of perfect being. 
Man cannot create anything, nor change anything that 
is created. He can only go on to know that which is. 
His glory is in knowing that. To know God is life eter- 
nal. The progress upward, the adaptation of the finite 
to the infinite, that is the bliss of immortality — that is 
salvation. This progress and adaptation, must be a 
thing of personal and individual acquirement. Or, if 
you take the race as an aggregate, it must be a thing 
of race, acquisition. The millenium is the resultant of 
race, progress. We are so constituted that truth can 
in no case be arbitrarily given, but must in every case 
be voluntarily received. You may tell your child the 
highest formula of abstruse science, but you tell it noth- 
ing, if the thing be wholly beyond what we call the 
child's apprehension. Even the highest wisdom, the 
divine Word, Jesus Christ, could not make the Jews 
understand Him. He could furnish wisdom, but not 



TRUTH. 



Ill 



the capacity to receive it. When you die, you can be- 
queath your houses and lands, but not your knowledge 
and wisdom and virtue. The true riches, each soul 
must obtain for itself. The true riches the human race 
must work out. The human race is rich only in pro- 
portion to the number of its individuals that are rich. 
Who therefore becomes truly rich, to that extent enriches 
his race. Whoever is poor and lean in spiritual things, 
is a burden for the race to carry. There is your work, 
and more, to obtain the true riches. There is the work 
of all mankind. Were it, otherwise, intelligence could 
not be intelligence — we should be no more than the 
tree or the stone. 

We ourselves alone set limits to our well-being. Na- 
ture, truth, will always respond to our highest compre- 
hension. To him who truly loves her, truth is divinely 
communicative. On all sides are infinite treasures. 
They are absolutely free to all who have intelligence 
enough to know they are treasures. We trample on 
them sometimes like swine on jewels. God's delight is 
in them that find Him out, and His delight is in propor- 
tion to the nearness of our approach. We have how- 
ever all the interval to traverse, that lies between noth- 
ingness and perfection. We begin at an infinite remove 
from God, and begin to all appearance under circumstan- 
ces of greatest disadvantage. So the divine wisdom 
has ordered, therefore, it was not good, or possible, to 
have it otherwise. We know nothing. We have to 
learn to know. 

The human mind at first is like the eye of a babe. 
It cannot bear the light. Then when it begins to know, 
nature is full of reflections of herself. We know not 
the reflection from the thing reflected. Human history, 



112 



SERMONS. 



thus far, is hardly more than the record of human mis- 
takes. It would appear that truly to know, involves 
that we know ivhat is not, as well as what is. That is 
about the experience of each human life, for each of us 
is but the epitome of the race. It is well enough to 
say, as we say sometimes, if we had known as much 
ten years ago as we know now, we would not have 
made the mistakes we have, but if we had not made 
those mistakes we could not have known as much as 
we do. Our folly is, our sin is, we persist in following 
that which has been infinitely demonstrated to be 
nothing — to be wrong. The wise is he who, through all 
nothingness and wrong, has an eye to see the true and 
right. It is written, " Understanding is a well-spring 
of life to him that hath it!' 

But that is the point, who hath it ? How are we to 
know the reflection from the thing reflected ? How are 
we to know when we have the real truth ? The Saviour 
intimates that it is extremely difficult to tell. The 
history of our race demonstrates the difficulty. " Take 
heed what you hear." For guiding us in the search 
for truth, man hath wrought out many devices. But 
even these devices, are only according to the resour- 
ces in man up to his capacity. In early ages, when 
man was nearly all animal, the giant was supreme 
power. The strong man became a god, an ultimate 
authority. You have that fact embalmed in the fables 
which relate to Hercules. In later times, as man ad- 
vanced toward a conquest over nature, to some know- 
ledge of mechanical art, rude artistic power became 
salvation. The tower of Babel attests the fact. As 
man advanced to his higher being, to the regions of 
mind and spirit, he advanced toward what we might 



TRUTH. 



113 



call doctrines and systems. Forgetting that truth must 
forever grow, because "all that was secret must be dis- 
closed " — forgetting that the problem grew more intri- 
cate as it approached the regions of pure spirit, man 
fixed limits to what was illimitable, and grew dogmatic 
in proportion as he should have been humble and patient 
in inquiry. In spite, however, of all folly and error, 
truth kept on growing. Its branches spread ; no dogma 
could cover them all. Philosophy secured her apostles ; 
science secured hers ; and all branches got to something 
like a natural living, except the religious branch. That, 
because highest of all, became more trammeled than 
any. Man undertook to take special care of it. Most 
of all needing inquiry, it was most of all hedged with 
dogma. Less capable than any, of being compressed to 
limits, man determined most of all to limit it. When 
the Saviour came to the race, He found it bowing down 
to glow-worms, supposing they were suns — found it in 
the night, supposing it was broadest day. There was 
not power of vision to endure a true light. There was 
ignorance enough to despise the very thing they wanted, 
as all ignorance does. They knew not what to hear. 

Where the race was then, a very large proportion of 
the race is to-day, and the duty of taking heed — the 
question of what to hear, is just as imperative to us as 
to those whom Christ immediately addressed. 

Now, what shall we hear ? If the question were 
asked respecting science, we should know who to hear. 
I should go to the astronomers about astronomy, to the 
geologist about geology. What they agreed upon and 
could prove by experience and observation, I should 
accept as truth. What they could not agree upon, what 
was yet undecided, I should leave them to experiment 



114 



SERMONS. 



upon, and leave each to his theory — knowing that none 
of them knew anything about it, but feeling that by 
their united inquiry truth would be disclosed, and that 
he who knew most would do most to disclose it. If 
the question were asked respecting religion, a similar 
course should be pursued, but here we are persistently 
unreasonable. We do not accept that, the substance of 
religion, in which all agree, and then leave those, who 
ought to know, to discuss the philosophy of things, 
that which is unknown, and proved to be unknown, 
from the very fact, that no agreement can be reached. 
But we undertake to discuss what we know nothing 
about, and quarrel over matters relative to which all 
that is certain is, that to some extent, we are all cer- 
tainly wrong. 

Some men would say, " Hear what the Church says." 
But then, who is to determine what the Church is, 
which is to have its say ? There is, perhaps, no other 
word in the language which conveys a more indefinite 
idea than the word " Church" Some men do not know 
enough to know that. Some men use it as if its mean- 
ing were patent at once to any ear, and set the man 
down as a fool who does not accept their definition of 
it. But take it in any of the senses, either as embra- 
cing all Christendom, or as confined to a mere sect, who 
is to determine what the Church says ? Through all the 
ages, the Church has said different things. Paul had 
occasion to resist Peter to the face. If opinions of men 
are the voice of the Church, then opinions differ. If 
the decrees of councils are the voice of the Church, 
then we must believe that the world does not turn 
round. If the Church is infallible, then no utterance 
of hers can be wrong, and so no utterance can be 



TRUTH. 



115 



changed, and therefore, if she says the world cannot 
turn round, we cannot believe that it does. If, as has 
been said, she undertakes to legislate in matters not 
within her province, then she is not infallible, and so 
how are we to know when she is right, and when she 
is wrong ? 

Some men would say, " take what the Bible says." 
But what does the Bible say ? The Bible, in any lan- 
guage to-day, is a translation from ancient MSS. There 
might have been, doubtless were, many mistakes in the 
MSS. There might be, doubtless are, many mistakes 
in the translations. How can we arrive at the true 
original ? Then, when we can agree upon the original 
word, how can we agree upon the exact word which 
shall represent that original in our language ? We say 
" repent" our Romish brother says, " do penance," and 
that too, when there is no dispute whatever, as to the 
original word. Then, when we have settled the trans- 
lation, who shall fix the meaning ? Men take the 
propositions of Paul, and stir up darkness. Men grap- 
ple with questions which they are wholly incapable of 
comprehending, and hence the confusion even in many 
Christian pulpits. 

Some men would say, " take what Jesus says." But 
what does He say ? Even when there is no dispute as 
to His words, the mind interpreting, can never give to 
those words a meaning higher than its own capacity. " With 
the measure we mete it, it is measured to us." Even under 
His immediate, simple, beautiful, loving words, with all 
their accents and intonations, men did not understand 
Him. He said relative to one of His disciples : " What 
if I will, that he tarry till I come," and they made Him 
say, that that disciple should not die, and so men are 



116 



SERMONS. 



forever making you say what they say, and it is a fear- 
ful burden to carry other people's sayings. It has been 
the calamity of Christianity, to have to carry our inter- 
pretations rather than Christ's own words. He said " I 
am a king." They made Him say Ccesar was no king. 
He said nothing about Csesar. When they cannot 
grasp His saying, or perceive that He refutes their say- 
ing, then they declare " He hath a devil." And so 
it ever is. Unwisdom is always doivn to its own level. 
There is need of saying : " Take heed what you hear." 
There is need of realizing that with what measure we 
mete, it is measured to us. 

Still the question remains, what are we to hear ? We 
talk about the " Rule of Faith." We often repeat the 
expression that " the Scripture is the sole rule of faith." 
Then we reason about the Scripture, and make reason 
at last the ultimate arbiter. The fact is, the Scripture 
is not the sole rule of faith, nor reason either, if you 
mean that by which the ultimate life-action is to be gui- 
ded. The sole rule of faith, like all unities, is a trinity. 
The Scripture, the reason, and the moral sense, these three 
combined make the unit that is to be our guide. When I use 
the expression " moral sense," I mean an element which 
God has given to man — an element we can feel and do 
exercise, though we seldom define it. To use an illustra- 
tion : A flower has a property by which it appropriates 
certain rays of the sun, which rays make that flower 
different from any other flower, protects and preserves 
its peculiar nature and character. The human eye has a 
power in gazing upon that flower of perceiving its beauty. 
You cannot tell a man what is beautiful, but he per- 
ceives what is beautiful. The stomach craves food, 
but it does not accept straw, or wood or sand ; not from 



TRUTH. 



117 



any education it has received, but from an innate, natu- 
ral sense — a sense responsive to the fitness of things God 
has ordained. So the moral sense in man is the prop- 
erty which asserts to us the just or unjust — the right 
or wrong. If you encounter the highwayman, and he 
attempts to reason with you that his calling is honora- 
ble, you know his moral sense is perverted. 

The moral sense is not exactly what we ordinarily 
call the conscience. It comes nearer to what the Qua- 
kers call the " Inner Light." It may be work of the 
Holy Ghost. Whatever it is, we have it. I believe it 
is the Holy Ghost, but then, that is only my belief, and 
I therefore do not bring it in as an element of the 
thought. Some men cannot read the Scriptures — 
some men cannot reason — some men have very little 
moral sense ; so that neither the Scripture, nor reason, 
nor the moral sense alone, can be the rule of faith, but 
only the three combined, and their combination in any 
man is the stature of that man. Their voice is the " sole 
rule of faith." When we speak of Scripture, I mean 
Jesus Christ — what He said — what He was — the divine 
Word. All the rest is only reflection of Him. I can 
put nothing in His place, nor allow anything to take 
His place. And when we speak of mans reason, or 
mans moral sense, we do not mean man, as you or me. 
Man is not a fraction. I am a man, but not man. Man 
is the scholar, the sailor, the artisan, the philosopher, 
the tradesman, the hermit — everything, all put togeth- 
er — so, reason is not my reasoning, or your reasoning, 
but the aggregate reason of the race. The moral sense 
is not yours or mine, but the enlightened moral sense. 
The Scripture, the reason, and the moral sense, in their 
broad and comprehensive grasp, are a trinity, which, in 



118 



SERMONS. 



their unity, make the sole rule of faith. What any one 
of them contradicts cannot he true. What they all agree 
upon, must be right. The witness of the three, not any 
one of them, is the sole rule of faith. 

Now, we see what our Church says — this grand old 
Church — so sublime in her comprehensive utterances. 
In the Vlth Article she says : " Holy Scripture contain- 
eth all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever 
is not read therein, nor may he proved thereby, is not to 
be required of any man, nor be thought requisite to sal- 
vation." Observe — " nor may he proved thereby '." Proved 
hy what ? The same act, which lays down the Scripture 
as the foundation, makes the reason and the moral sense, 
the judges to which that Scripture is to answer. Again, 
in the XXth Article, she says : " It is not lawful for 
the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's 
word written." Well, how are we to tell what is con- 
trary ? Not by any procurement of a clique, arbitrarily 
called a Church, but only as the reason and the moral 
sense witness — the aggregate reason and moral sense — so 
that, again, the sole rule of faith, is the resultant, the 
testimony of the Scripture, the reason, and the moral 
sense combined. Now, as the Scripture is not absolutely 
perfect, not from any deficiency in Christ Himself, but 
from deficiency growing out of our inability to secure 
the perfection — as the reason is not absolutely perfect, 
nor the moral sense absolutely perfect— so, it follows, 
that the sole rule of faith cannot be absolutely perfect. 
What, then ? Is there nothing that we can hear ? Not 
at all ! Science is not absolutely perfect — is there, then, 
no science ? The beautiful has not been absolutely ex- 
pressed — is there, then, no beauty ? Truth has not been 
all made known — is nothing known ? The Saviour said 



TRUTH. 



119 



He had some things to tell us, which we could not bear 
— is there, then, no truth ? Did He therefore tell us 
nothing ? You see, the Scripture, and nature, and the 
beautiful, are infinite and fathomless — they are fixed. 
Our reason and moral sense, are the measures which set 
limits to our supply. A perverted reason and moral 
sense, will take the wrong thing — a Church, which ig- 
nores reason and the moral sense, will have an inquisi- 
tion. Do you see any force, then, in the words : " Take 
heed what you hear, for with what measure ye mete, it 
shall be measured to you, and to him that heareth shall 
more be given V I would give a great deal, if I had it 
in my power to make that plainer for you, but I believe 
I cannot. It opens for you all a view of life, and in 
that view a most solemn duty — the duty of so using 
time, that it shall develop intelligence and moral cul- 
ture, till we are truly responsive to the eternal Word. 

Such is this moral being in which God has placed us. 
The higher up we are, the more there is for us to do — 
the more solemn is this being. 

These thoughts directly involve another thing of 
which we talk — the right of private judgment. And 
this is one of the lessons we draw from this subject. 
Do what you will, your salvation depends upon your- 
self. You cannot part with your responsibility. If 
you let a priest do your thinking for you, and tell you 
what your faith shall be, still it is you that do it. If 
you part with your private judgment, it is your private 
judgment that parts with it, and somehow, while part- 
ing with it, you still keep it. It is the thing from 
which you cannot part. Never was there a dogma more 
foolish than that which denies the right of private 
judgment. It, in the very act of denial, asserts the 



120 



SERMONS. 



thing itself. It thinks private judgment should not be, 
and what is that thinking but private judgment itself? 
If you break your own arm, you suffer from it. If 
you let somebody else break it, you suffer from it. 
The best way is to take care of your own arms. For 
what you do, or for what you do not do, your soul must 
answer to God. 

The next lesson, is the imperative duty of cultiva- 
ting your reason and moral sense by all the means 
within your reach. Suppose you do not know how to 
answer ? Then you may well be afraid of a thought, 
and shut yourself up in seclusion. Then draw your 
lines as narrow as you can. Only the truth can make 
you free, and if you are more afraid of losing what you 
have, than of gaining more, you will so contrive as to 
lose what you seemed to have. Without real reason 
and culture, you will think you will have to believe all 
you hear, and at last not know what you ought to hear. 
Only those in God's light see light. And here we reach 
one of the greatest evils now in the Church. I con- 
tend, that with all our so-called civilization, it is man 
at last that is not cultivated. With such a burden of 
earthiness to carry, as we have to carry, it is impossi- 
ble that man should be cultivated. Very few men 
and women, even in the Cuurch, know how to think, 
and especially to think upon questions involved in 
moral philosophy. Thinking implies something more 
than conjecture or opinion. It implies knowledge, ex- 
perience, and above all, habits of analyzing, weighing, 
comparing, in much diligence and patience. Even the 
Christian ministry is not given enough to thinking. 
Things are, first of all, prescribed to us in our semina- 
ries, before we have had time to know how to think. 



TRUTH. 



121 



We are not taught so much to think, as to receive what 
we are told. We are not taught truth, broad and uni- 
versal, so much as our ism — our doctrine. We go out 
never to question our tenets, nor to allow them to be 
questioned. We go out not to preach the Gospel, but 
to sustain, each man, his party, till we are not only 
divided, but antagonistic. Each is skilled in the use of 
his own arms, till even the Mormons can make as many 
proselytes as any of us, and the advocates of Sunday 
liquor laws, of gaming tables, and dens of all iniquity, 
make more than all of us put together. Proselytes, 
once gained, react upon the Church. They insist upon 
hearing that by which they have been captivated. No- 
thing new or unusual must be introduced. The teacher 
who follows the old formulas, and rumples nobody's 
feelings, who is in all respects safe, gets smoothly on. 
The man with a real thought, with a positive teaching, 
is set down, like the Master, as Beelzebub. We have 
no teachers any more. Everybody knows too much. 
The pews dictate to our pulpits, and the more impera- 
tively, as they are the less capable. A few young 
misses can, often do, determine the theology for a whole 
parish, till — God being in all cases true to Himself, to 
His own laws — nothingness produces nothingness, world- 
liness produces worldliness, superstition produces super- 
stition. The Church is everywhere grieving over the 
fact. Young men no longer seek the ministry. Men 
are driven out of our churches, and we are left exclaim- 
ing against the impiety of the age. Men start up else- 
where to preach God's truth, and we are left protesting 
against infidelity- — calling those hard names, who, if 
they are unfortunate, are made unfortunate, in great part, 
by our fault. The reason abandoned, the Scripture 



122 



SERMONS. 



unheeded, and they who, ostensibly, are the followers of 
wisdom, are most certainly and superlatively unwise ; 
they who have sworn to renounce the world, with its 
pomps and vanities, are they by whom those pomps 
and vanities survive, till, instead of the Church being 
a teacher, we need to intercede with God for somebody 
to come to teach the Church. Then, as if to confirm 
us in any errors in which we might be, and to keep us 
confirmed, our pulpits are barred to any light from 
outside. In our immediate Church, particularly, no man 
can enter here, unless he has had laid upon him a so- 
called Apostolic hand — this we know to a certainty, 
that hand can convey no truth, nor power to perceive 
the truth, for whilst it prudently fears an error, it fatally 
assumes it knows all that can be known. A man who 
was yesterday made a deacon, may come here and 
preach, though, in the nature of things, it be not pos- 
sible for him to know anything. While a man, whom 
the world counts a wise man, whose wisdom is the 
accumulation of years, cannot even set his foot within 
the railing. The Son of Man, wandering in his plebian 
simplicity, would be worse off with us, than He was 
with the Jews. He could enter into His temple of old 
and teach them that had ears to hear, but should He 
come to us, we could never hear Him, unless we heard 
Him in what we refuse to call a church, or outdoors in 
the streets. Is it possible that mental common sense 
can endorse such action as wisdom? It has been asked, 
" where will you draw the line ?" I would ask, why 
draw any line ? You have your family circle, and 
you keep it pure — but what line do you draw. Your 
judgment and object in social life are your guide, and 
your purity and culture your protection. Then, if we 



TRUTH. 



123 



go into any other pulpit, we must never say a word 
about their follies or their errors — that would be rude 
and impolite, though our business is to save souls. 
That would be wrong, though we are seekers for truth, 
and we know that one side of a story is good, only till 
the other side is heard. What wonder is it, that men 
sit in churches for years, believing, as they think, all 
they hear, when, by some fortuitous circumstance, they 
hear another story, and find themselves converted to 
that ? At this rate, do we Christians believe anything ? 
Some skillful reasoner could reason multitudes out of 
their faith to-morrow. I believe that many of the evils 
around us, are because of evils existing within us. 
We talk about Christ rather than receive Christ our- 
selves — what He said, what He was. And, brethren, 
when I speak of Christians, I mean myself as well as 
you. I am not, and do not pretend to be any wiser 
than other people. But I feel the force of what Jesus 
said : " Take heed what you hear, for with what meas- 
ure ye mete it shall be measured to you." I see it 
every day. I would always carry you to Him. If I 
may carry you anywhere else, I lead you astray. I 
may be at every step wrong. He can never be wrong. I 
would like you to have an ear to hear Him. Have I 
been able to show you any force in that utterance of 
His ? Have I shown you any duty of culture in your 
study of Scripture, in your spiritual being, your reas- 
oning power ? Do you see, if you are to love God 
acceptably, you are to love Him with heart and soul 
and mind ? Have I given you any reasons why you 
should let go the shadows, the follies and deceptions of 
the world, and cling more ardently to Christ? Apply 
your life more devotedly to things above. In all the 



124 



SERMONS. 



confusion of tongues let us come back to Him. Let 
me remind you, with humble and affectionate earnest- 
ness, that life is no trifle, that you and I can never 
drift into well-being, that a little knowledge is a dan- 
gerous thing, and anything taken for granted is still 
more dangerous, that nature is full of parables. The 
wise speak always in parables, even the blessed Jesus. 
No power on earth can make you see what you have no 
power to see. If you live in the accidents of life, you 
will take only more accident. If you live in the essen- 
tials, you will crave more essentials, for you will live 
always in your highest being. If you cannot hear 
the voice of Jesus, you will hear the voice of the High 
Priest, and the more you hear that, the more foolish 
you will become, only the more persistent you will be 
in believing you are truly wise. Read, mark, learn, and 
inwardly digest. In listening to opinions, consider their 
source. Be much in prayer and meditation with Jesus. 
He knoweth His sheep, however the world may treat 
them. His sheep hear his voice, and follow him. In 
other words, those who hear his voice and follow Him 
are His sheep. Them he will bring to the green pastures 
and the still waters of eternal life, to the everlasting 
fold where there is everlasting safety. " Take heed 
what ye hear, for with what measure ye mete, it shall 
be measured to you ; and unto you that have, shall 
more be given." 



PERCEPTION OF TRUTH. 



125 



PERCEPTION OF TRUTH. 

John 8 : 46-48. — Which of you convinceth me of sin ? And if I say the 
truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words. 
Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Then answered the 
Jews and said unto Him, Say we not well, that thou art a Samaritan and 
hast a devil ? 

This whole chapter presents us with one of those 
marvellous scenes, to me among the most remarkable 
connected with the life of Christ. The wise and gentle 
Saviour is contending against the contradictions of the 
foolish and cruel Jews. He came to His own people, 
but His own people fight against Him. Except the 
crucifixion, there is nothing in history more humiliating 
to our humanity than these attempts of the Jews to 
reason with Christ. Perhaps we should hardly except 
the crucifixion, for that is but the culmination of rage. 
These debates on their part, are the patient delineation 
of ignorance and utter impotency. They could not 
resist the force of Christ's wisdom, and yet they could 
not admit it to be wisdom. They undertake to answer 
His arguments, and yet had no perception of the truth 
He imparted. They could not account for His miracles, 
and yet could not admit His power. In the case of an 
unhappy woman, low cunning of their nature had made 
Him the arbiter. His innate modesty and mercy, com- 
bined in a justice so simple and impressive, drove 
them self-accused and self-condemned from the judg- 
ment hall, and yet they knew all things better than He. 
No evidence of the divine nature of Christ is strong 
enough to reach them. They insist upon asking Him, 



126 



SERMONS. 



" Who art thou ? " and yet persist in refusing to re- 
ceive His answer. It was not that He was confronting 
the illiterate and uncultured. On the contrary " the 
common people" heard Him gladly. They believed 
He was a prophet. Those who undertook as they 
thought to reason with Him, were the learned, the guar- 
dians of the nation, set up to be the Church. The 
High-Priest himself, on the night of the final arrest, 
said to Christ : " I adjure thee by the living God, that 
thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of 
God ? " How could Christ tell Him, except as His 
whole life proclaimed it ? What answer did he want, 
except that Christ should deny his own nature ? 

Now, these thoughts are worth inquiring into. These 
facts are worth explaining. They indicate certain con- 
ditions of mind, possible to all men, because they existed 
in these men, dangerous to any men, because they were 
death to these Jews. We might discover that truth for 
any man, or any age, does not depend so mach upon the 
vividness of the truth itself, as upon our power to perceive it. 
We might find that there are conditions of mind, things 
assumed, results of defective or erroneous education, 
which preclude the possibility of perception, which 
make a man the victim of superstition and delusion. 
It might be, if we understood all the laws of the case, 
that it would be more wonderful for some men to see 
the truth, than it now appears to be that they do not 
see it. We might find many of the elements, the ten- 
dency of which is to blind, mingling more extensively 
in us all, than we are aware, making it imperative that 
we use more diligence, more down-right, thorough hon- 
esty with ourselves to attain that freedom which real 
truth alone can give us. 



PERCEPTION OP TRUTH. 



127 



One element presented to us in this chapter is of 
special importance, the element not of an actual Christ, 
but of such a Christ. This thought indeed attaches in 
relation to the whole incarnation. Man never can com- 
plain with respect to Christ, that he had no chance to 
do himself justice, to do his best, that we were taken at 
a disadvantage, that anything was appealed to, except 
our reason, our understanding, our humanity — in short, 
the best of everything there was in us. Turn the pic- 
ture over and think. Had Christ been a monarch, as 
men are monarchs, we could not have reached Him. 
Had He been a High Priest, invested with the trappings 
of a false dignity — had He been a philosopher, robed in 
the forms of profession — had he been anything that was 
conventional, we could not have done ourselves full and 
exact justice, because we should have lacked the free- 
dom of an action absolutely unrestrained. He could 
not have had just His own individual influence and no 
more, rather we had better say, and no less. 

We must all have observed, how much more power- 
ful, temporarily, office, position, wealth, family, and the 
extensive accidents of life always are, than mind, rea- 
son, real justice, or any other actual good or personal 
worth, and that is one reason why there is so much 
more of the one in the world than there is of the other. 
Few of us are aware to what extent a man's belongings 
are more powerful than the man. We are not convinced 
by mind, by virtue, by real moral forces, so much as by 
policy, by etiquette, by deference, by conventional habit 
and prejudice. In other words, we are not convinced 
at all. In the presence of outward dignity and author- 
ity, we only do not express ourselves. We yield, and 
think we accept. In the absence of outward assump- 



128 



SERMONS. 



tion, we hold to our opinions still, if we had any that 
were really ours, whether wise or unwise, good or bad. 
We have done many a thing to a man not knowing him, 
which we would not have done if we had known him ; 
but what we did, was an expression of ourselves. Your 
unconscious action is often much more yourself, than 
your most studied behaviour. The bowing and scrap- 
ing a man pays to my dignity or wealth, is not respect 
for me ; it is only the outcropping of his own selfish- 
ness. The respect we pay to the humblest man we know, 
is the measure of our respect for humanity. All the rest 
is respect for ourselves. He who would not know wis- 
dom in a scavenger, would not know it at all ; he who 
despises it in rags, in the very act of despising, simply 
expresses his own ignorance and distance from God. 

This test, the incarnation of Christ, applied to our 
humanity. We did what we pleased, and what a pleas- 
ure it was ! There was no restraint and no depth to 
our degradation. The treatment the Son of God re- 
ceived, was an exact photograph of our moral condition. 
There were you ; there was I. Verily, " for judgment 
Christ came into this world " — for discrimination — for 
defining who and what we were — " that they who saw 
not, might see " — that the humble and the pure in heart 
might find the truth and God — learn the way to heaven 
— that they who saw, might be made blind " — i. e., de- 
monstrate that they were blind ; not that they them- 
selves would know they were blind, or ever perceive 
it, for that never happens, but that others, they who 
can see, might know it — that it might be palpable to all 
generations that they were blind — that they did not 
see things that were true and divine. 

This was one prime reason why those Jews could 



PERCEPTION OF TRUTH. 



129 



not see. They were buried in deference to externals, to 
that which was established, to all that was formal, cere- 
monial, etiquettical, conventional, historic. It was no 
part of their practice to inquire into anything, to reason 
about things, human or divine. It was not then the 
custom of the world. It never had been. In a few 
nations there had been here and there a thinker. The 
thinkers in those ancient nations, are the most wonder- 
ful things those nations ever produced. They stood 
alone ; the multitudes thought they were mad. It is 
not the custom of the nations to think now. The real 
thinkers are still considered beside themselves. The 
Jews lived in assumption — in what we call " taking for 
granted " — in a sort of artificial life — in an atmosphere 
they created. Or, perhaps it were better to say, they 
received certain historic facts, accepted them, said they 
believed them, without inquiring what those facts im- 
plied ; they actually knew nothing about them. The 
facts were not fed on and digested ; they were kept to 
be looked at, and, as is always the case, were least un- 
derstood by those who laid most stress upon them. 
In the absence of inquiry, they made them imply things 
that were impossible. " We have Abraham to our Fath- 
er." Certainly, but that did not make them true children 
of God. This was one of their mistakes. They said, "God 
was with Abraham ; therefore God is with us." The 
therefore did not by any means follow. " We never were 
in bondage to any man; therefore we are free." Here was 
another " non sequiter" They were in the most galling 
bondage, only were too insensible to know it. All that 
they held was not wrong, but it might just as well have 
been, for all the good it did them. Ignorance, preju- 
dice, error, transgression — that is bondage. Knowledge, 



130 



SERMONS. 



virtue, wisdom, usefulness, all grace and excellence, 
real power to see the truth — that alone is freedom. I 
do not think we all quite understand that. 

Then another fact rises up here. Ignorance and error 
arm themselves against light and truth. The first as- 
sumption of narrowness, of wrongheadedness, and wrong- 
heartedness is, that whatever differs with it, is not only 
necessarily wrong, but its enemy and the enemy of the 
race. Assumption, hereditary creed, forever claims uni- 
versal guardianship. It then denies the one grand tenet, 
that truth must stand forever, in its exhibition of fear 
that truth can be overthrown. Its assumption, is an 
assertion of a falsehood, that truth needs to be guarded. 
Think of guarding the sunlight, or gravitation ! or the 
tidal wave ! 

All that any truth wants, is full and absolute venti- 
lation, circulation, analysis, sifting. There is much 
more of it, and much, nearer to us than we know for. 
All we want is an eye to see it. For some men to say 
they do not see certain truths is simply ridiculous. It 
would be a miracle if they did. Truth can never grow 
except as men have power to discuss it. Wherever 
truth is perfectly guarded, truth is perfectly dead. In the 
city of Rome you can buy no Bibles, and if there was 
but one Church, no matter which one it was, if that 
stood alone, there would not be a Bible at all. The spirit 
of the Jews — " We have Abraham to our Father," is the 
spirit of all sect, and practically, because human nature 
is the same all the world over — the difference between 
sects, is merely accidental. Sectarianism demands not 
the truth, but only repetition and confirmation of what it 
already holds, and that is most sectarian, which most 
persistently refuses to hear anything but itself. To 



PERCEPTION OF TRUTH. 



131 



change the expression a little, that is narrowest which 
claims alone to be catholic ; that is most sectarian 
which assumes that it alone is true, and to assume that, 
is to lose the power of perceiving the truth. We see 
this in the Jews. There was certainly truth enough in 
Jesus, but what the Jews wanted was an eye to see it. 
You must observe this, for it is the very point of this 
Scripture, " If I say the truth, why do ye not believe 
me ?" Those people whom Christ said were not of 
God, were the very people claiming to be exclusively 
God's. If they had been of God, they would gladly have 
received Christ ; but they were mistaken, and, with all 
their pretensions, were Christ's enemies. That spirit — 
desire to make something true, rather than to find out 
whether it is true, deference to anything but the truth 
itself, is the enemy of Christ to-day, as much as those 
Jews were on that day to which our text takes us back. 
Like seeks like. The blind love the blind. If you are 
buried in any ism, and I come to you to confirm that 
ism, you receive me gladly. If I attempt to tear away 
your error, you attack me as an enemy. My truth 
may be as plain as was that of Christ — but, you see, a 
soul full of error crowds out the truth, blunts the per- 
ception. Whoever is unwilling to have discussed what 
he holds to be truth, has lost the truth. In what church 
or sect would Christ have a better chance to day, than 
He had there that day ? You and I, if He were here, 
should be first, perhaps, to say, " we cannot sanction 
that — that is not what we have been taught." We should 
have no power to set quietly down and say, " is this 
true!' Oh, yes, if we knew it was Christ ! That would 
be another matter ! But God does not wish you to 
know, except as you perceive. As I have been showing 



132 



SERMONS. 



you, that would be to constrain you ; you would yield 
to authority, not to conviction. The thought would 
not be your's. It would only be, that you assent to it. 
You would not know anything about it. Truth bears 
with it, its own authority. In God's light we see light. 
To tell you it was Christ, would not make you know it 
was Christ. Oh ! what a blessing it was that Christ 
came, then, as He did ; that He could not be bought 
up by the Jews, nor by any influence. Do you not 
see what it was that crucified Christ ? They felt to- 
ward him all that we would feel toward a man who does 
what we call outraging the general religious sentiment. 
We think that to persecute such a man, is good enough 
for him. Christ did outrage all common religious sen- 
timent, but it was not His fault. It was their fault. 
"What a blessing that He did go on and say all He did 
say. Because He did do it, other men have done it. 
" Because He lives, we shall live also." He has shown 
men how divine it is to be true to their convictions. 
They ought to have listened — if possible, to learn. 
That is our want, thought that is ours, perception of 
truth out of powers, vital and inherent in us. If we can- 
not receive a thing, we ought not to say it is not true. 
We ought to say we cannot see it. Nor ought we to 
receive a thing, because somebody tells us so. No — 
it is not the food a man puts in him that keeps 
him alive, but the food he assimilates. It is not the 
truth we accept, which does us any good, but the truth 
we understand. Whoever accepts any truth, into which 
he is afraid to inquire, puts a millstone round his neck. 
It is because we receive so little, and understand so 
little, that we are mentally and morally so lean. This 
is why, with all our churches, and sects, and preaching, 



PERCEPTION OF TRUTH. 



133 



and what we call means of grace, our world is so grace- 
less. We have too much contrivance, too much that is 
establishment, and not enough truth. The influence of 
Christ, at least, was infinite, because every atom of it 
was real. We have so much that is artificial, we have 
so little that is effective. We wonder we do not accom- 
plish more. The greater wonder would be if we did. 
The world is as well off as it can be. All things con- 
sidered, it is more hopeful than we have any right to 
expect. Nine-tenths of us have little truth to give it — 
only our ism, that which is of the fathers. We are not 
living trees, yielding fresh fruits for living men, but 
only stalls, laden with last year's fruits, and but the 
remnant of that — black and wilted. Now, another 
thought. Truth alone can receive truth. Truth alone 
stands confident that all things help her. There is 
a majesty in that expression of St. Paul's, where he 
says, some preached Christ to help him, and some to 
thwart him. Still, it matters not any way — Christ was 
preached, and it all helped him. This, also, is included 
in truth. Not only is it a tenet to be held, it is sin- 
cerity in holding it. Truth comes to the true. Christ 
hath no fellowship with Belial. Truth is life. Who is 
not quickened by truth, holds no truth. Truth alone 
passes by the accident, the husk, the occasion, the cir- 
cumstance, and inquires diligently, turns it over, looks 
through it. How hard that is to do, none knows but 
he who earnestly tries it. It requires a discipline so 
great, that Solomon made no mistake when he said, he 
that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he who taketh 
a city. Error says, as the Jews said, unbelievingly, 
" who are you ?" Truth says, as the boy whom Christ 
had cured of his blindness, said, " who is he, Lord, that 



134 



SERMONS. 



I might believe on him ?" Error, in its pride, would 
stop the truth, and in its impatience, smites it. Truth, 
in the energy of its quenchless life, courts the truth, 
even though it may he smitten by it. If we could all 
go up to our churches to discuss, to hear, to try to un- 
derstand, not to be stuffed with what we have taken 
for granted, what we think we already know, what our 
sect teaches ; how broad, and strong, and noble, and 
useful we should become. A new vigor would pervade 
the Church. A grand worship in spirit and in truth, 
would swell upward as incense before God. Our world 
would recover of its leprosy. 

It seems to me, now, you can get some insight into 
these words of Christ — " which of you convinceth me of 
sin ?" There stood Christ, a pillar of all virtue, benevo- 
lence, and excellence. He virtually said, what is religion 
for? Is not the very idea and essence of it this, to 
make us wiser, to help us to lead a godly life ? If I 
were seeking to overthrow any good, if I practiced 
upon your credulity, if I fattened myself at your ex- 
pense, you would have cause to suspect me, and com- 
plain of me. But my life testifies of me. Let the 
fruit bear witness of the tree. 

If, then, my life is true, and I speak the truth — if 
you can find no wickedness in me, and are not able to 
refute my teaching, why do ye not believe me ? Plain- 
ly, there must be some cause in you. It is greatly to 
your interest that you discover that cause. I tell it to 
you plainly : He that is of God, heareth God's words ; 
he that is true, perceiveth the truth; to him that hath, 
more is given. All things seek according to their na- 
ture. Vice loves vice ; folly indulges in folly ; error 
craves error ; the iceberg seeks the iceberg ; purity 



PERCEPTION OF TRUTH. 



135 



loves purity ; wisdom inquires into wisdom. All real 
truth is of God ; you hear not, because you are not of God. 
Your eye penetrates not into things divine. You are 
not in earnest with yourself — with your soul ; you are 
not dealing with the real, but with the fanciful ; the 
fabric you have built, much as you feel interested in it, 
is not that with which God has anything to do, or cares 
anything about ; you are living for self, for time ; you 
are not living at all. It may seem strange to you that 
truth should be so near, and you not be able to see it, 
but it is more strange that you should not be able to 
see how deluded you are. If you were of God, you 
would hear God's words ; you therefore hear them not 
because you are not of God. And let me ask you, 
brethren, if the reasoning of Christ is not plain ? But, 
if any proof were wanted of the truth as the Saviour 
expressed it, and as I have been endeavoring to show 
it to you, their answer furnished it — " Say we not well, 
thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil ?" How true to 
themselves ! What had that to do with it ? Abuse is 
no argument — hard names prove nothing. They are 
only the resort of weakness — the revenge of littleness. 
But what an exhibition then, of the fact that we can 
never rise above our real selves. How that which is 
brutal resorts to brute force, and that which is ignorant 
to weakness, and that which is malicious to malice. We 
may always safely leave people to their own convictions, 
tenets and creeds. A dire necessity is over us all, to 
make us tell evermore what we are. Strange paradoxes 
are in nature. We cannot express our experiences, nor 
can another tell us what we are, but life-action is for- 
ever writing us out and telling us to the world. If any 
of those Jews have ever become wise, what would they 



136 



SERMONS. 



not give to be able to go back there, and wipe out that 
record forever ! But if they have never become wise, 
they do not wish to blot it out. They think it is glori- 
ous. This is the reason why the foolish glory in their 
folly. 

Well, brethren, this is the question, if we are not 
wise, who shall make us wise ? — if we know not the 
truth, who shall teach us truth ? — how shall we know 
it when we hear it ? If the angels are weeping over us, 
what angel shall make us feel we ought to weep for our- 
selves ? Is our life, our ^arthiness, our treatment of 
the Bible, of Christ, of all sound wisdom — is the bar- 
renness of our world, the inefficiency of our Churches, 
the prevalence of sin — is it all telling what we are and 
how much we are worth ? And, oh God ! is all going 
up before thee, going upon the record of those books 
that are to be opened — to consign us to a place with 
those Jews that despised thee ? Do we wish to blot it 
out to-day, and put another record in its place ? Well, 
no Lazarus will come from the dead — no angel with a 
lash will stand over us — no constraint will come even 
from heaven. There is Jesus, Son of God, better than 
Moses and the prophets — better than angels or man. 
Every word, every line, every incident, is full of truth, 
if we only have ears to hear, and eyes to see. In 
the commotions of our world, in the churches and 
sects, and isms, in the successions, ordinances, and 
conventionalities, everywhere there is truth enough, if 
you can distinguish truth from churches and isms, from 
successions and ordinances. Whatever is of sect, of 
ism, of ordinance, of mere tradition, is sin. There is 
death in it. Let those Jews be a warning to you. Let 
this Scripture teach us whatever is not of sin is of God. 



PERCEPTION OF TRUTH. 



137 



Our Father would have us so live. You see the solem- 
nity of life and eternity, so demands, that we walk as 
wise men, in much thought, meditation, prayer, in pa- 
tient hearing, sifting, testing — that we take heed how 
we hear, how we stand ; that we be able to bear the 
truth. He who rends our creed into tatters, may be a 
better friend to us, than he who mends the rents already 
in it, Blessed is he who, when he sees it going, can 
feel it is not his all, but that he has that in him, in 
Christ, in God and heaven, against which time nor eter- 
nity can ever prevail. Not only that he hath hold of 
God, but that Gocl hath hold of him. He is a true 
friend to us, who shows us that with our creed, even 
though it may never be torn, or in any way destroyed, 
we have very little — that over and beyond it, in the 
deep things of God, are things richer than that — who 
shows us, that forgetting the things which are behind, 
and reaching on toward those which are before, we press 
toward the mark of our high calling, of God in Christ 
Jesus ; that, leaving the rudiments of Christian doc- 
trine, we go on to perfection. This is our calling, that 
we be enriched in all knowledge and spiritual under- 
standing, that we come behind in no gift ; that we be 
strengthened with might by the Holy Ghost, in the 
inner man ; that Christ, in all He was, in all He said, 
may dwell in our hearts by faith ; that being rooted and 
grounded in love we may be able to comprehend, with 
all saints, with the true and pure, and the wise of all 
ages, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height, and to hiotv by experience, by perception, the 
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. In short, to 
be filled with all the fullness of God. This is our 
calling. He that is of God, heareth God's words. This 



138 



SERMONS. 



is our life-work, to believe in Him whom God hath sent. 
Let me entreat you all, young and old, draw nearer to 
Christ — of all things you do, sit at His feet, learn of 
Him. Take His yoke. There, in all He was, is virtue 
and grace for you, truth and wisdom for you, life in 
earth and in heaven, peace, and joy, and rest, forever 
and ever. 



THE TRINITY. 



Matthew 28 : 19, 20. — Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. 

These were among the last words Christ uttered upon 
earth. They were spoken after His resurrection, just 
as He was about to ascend to His Father in heaven. 
He had given His disciples notice of the time and place 
whence He would take His departure. At the time 
and place appointed many of them were gathered. 
When they saw Him, they worshiped Him. But some 
doubted — i. e., doubted perhaps whether it were He, 
whether it were a reality they beheld. So He came 
and spake unto them. He would dissolve all doubt. 
Among the things He said was this : "All power is given 
unto me in heaven and earth." /have overcome. / 
am King. All power is given to me ; to me whom you 
recognize, to me who called you all, to me in whom you 
believe, to me whose disciples you all are ; all power is 
given. " Therefore go ye," go to all nations. You see 



THE TRINITY. 



139 



how the " therefore " evolves out of these facts. " There- 
fore go ye." And this is the way you are to go : teach- 
ing — teaching in two ways ; by word of mouth, every- 
thing /have commanded you ; and by overt act, baptiz- 
ing, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost. You are not to teach any doctrine of 
your own, any more theories, or temporal systems ; and 
you are not to teach anything which I have not com- 
manded you. You are to baptize, but you are not to 
baptize in my name only ; nor in any name, except this 
one which I tell you : Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 
" You are to teach men to observe all things whatso- 
ever I have commanded you." Here you have the power 
commissioning, and also the commission given. 

Baptism, in the Christian dispensation, took the place 
of circumcision in the Abrahamic. There are reasons 
for believing, that baptism had begun to supercede cir- 
cumcision, among the Jews, anterior to the coming of 
Christ. Converts to the Jewish faith, instead of being 
circumcised, were baptized. Perhaps, John the Baptist 
accepted what had already begun to be a custom, and 
made it the specific sign of adherence to his teaching. 
Christ endorsed John's decision, or adoption, and made 
baptism the first rite of the new dispensation. The 
connection of baptism, however, with the idea of the 
Trinity, in the New Testament, is very remarkable. 
Christ's own baptism was made the occasion of a mi- 
raculous manifestation of the Trinity. 

Circumcision had been the sign of the covenant made 
between God, on the one hand, and Abraham, on the 
other. It was the condition of Jewish nationality, and 
assured to every descendant of Abraham the promise 
of the Messiah. It was one element of a perfect proof 



140 



SERMONS. 



that God, the one true God, had made such a covenant 
with Abraham. The elements of a perfect proof of any 
historic fact, are three : the written record, the visible, 
material monument, and the stated rite, or ceremony, 
or sacrament — as we call it, specially referring to it. 
Of the Abrahamic covenant, these three elements com- 
bined in the proof. There was the written word, then the 
tabernacle, or afterwards, the temple, and circumcision. 
A historic fact may be believed without these three ele- 
ments in its record ; but where these three elements 
are, the fact cannot be doubted. All sacraments have 
this historic value. That which has not such a value is 
not a sacrament. The word sacrament means an oath. 
The essential idea is that of testimony. In Jesus Christ 
the Abrahamic covenant passed from promise into ful- 
fillment. Baptism took the place of circumcision. Cir- 
cumcision bore testimony, that the covenant was made 
between men and the one God, the Lord Jehovah, the 
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That, you know, 
was one specific characteristic of Judaism, its assertion 
of the oneness of God. Baptism bears testimony that 
the covenant is complete between man, and the one 
God ; but, that this one God is Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, as revealed by the Messiah, or Revealer, whom 
circumcision pledged. Where there is water, without 
this form, or this form without water, there is no bap- 
tism. Baptism is as monumental as the Lord's Supper. 
The Lord's Supper commemorates the fact that Jesus 
Christ lived and died ; was instituted for that purpose — 
" do this in remembrance of me? Baptism commemo- 
rates the fact that Jesus Christ revealed God to be the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. All power is given unto 
me in heaven and earth ; still, do not baptize exclusively 



THE TRINITY. 



141 



in my name, but in the name of Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost. I am God, but God is triune. I am the Re- 
vealer, to reveal this God to you. This is the God I 
reveal. The covenant is between man and a triune 
God, the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 
Unity, but also a Trinity. The monument of Chris- 
tianity, and of this particular fact in Christianity, is 
also perfect ; the written record, the ceremonial rite, 
and the true Church or visible structure. To view 
baptism, therefore, as a question simply as to the use 
of more or less water, is to degrade it. To leave out 
this element of testimony, is not to see its whole value. 
So long as a man, or a woman, or a child, shall be bap- 
tized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 
so long will there be proof positive, that the God whom 
Christ revealed was a Trinity. 

Now, if any one shall deny the Trinity, he must do 
one of two things : either, upon the ground of revela- 
tion, set up to be a better revealer of God than Christ 
was, (in which case, we leave him to such proofs as he 
may be able to give,) or, he must reject revelation, and 
take his stand upon reason ; in which case, even he, 
will hardly deny that, at least, that field is as open to 
us as it is to him. 

The Trinity of the One Deity, is the truth which the 
Church celebrates to-day. Because Jesus Christ re- 
vealed it and established it, no Christian can doubt it, 
and therefore, if the simple assertion of it be the object 
of our preaching to-day, here my sermon might very 
well end. But there are two senses in which we are 
to understand the word " revealed." There is a body 
and a soul to everything. Man has an outward ear, and 
an inner mind or soul. The ear is the avenue to the 



142 



SERMONS. 



mind or soul. The mind or soul is the man. The ear 
is the channel for reaching the man. What goes no 
further than the ear fails of its purpose and falls short 
of the man. The man has received a revelation, only 
when the sound has passed his ear, and the fact stands 
clear in his mind. The multiplication table is a revela- 
tion to your child. He cons it, and accepts it, till his 
ear cannot forget it, but it is then very far from being 
revealed, though he does not doubt it. When he even- 
tually sees the laws which compel the results, when the 
mental forces lift him above his mere memory, then rev- 
elation fairly sets in, and he truly believes. In the 
nature of things, the hearing of the ear comes first, and 
the believing in the heart comes afterwards. For this 
reason, there are few of us perhaps who, as we advance 
in life, do not imagine our early training to have been 
imperfect, extremely defective. We understood nothing 
at the time, as we went along. Understanding came 
upon reflection, in soul-work and mind-labor. It could 
not have been otherwise ; it always will be so. That 
is revealed to us which we know, and only that ; and the 
process of knowing, is a subjective process, something 
to be done, each for himself. When that which is ad- 
dressed to the ear and accepted there, is true, we go on 
to the knowledge, the real revelation, because it is true. 
As Christ said, if we will do His will, we shall know of 
the doctrine. That is God's law, that we need guidance 
till we can guide ourselves. We reach the real revela- 
tion at last, because w T e have received the substance be- 
forehand. Hence, faith is not that which blindly ac- 
cepts anything ; faith is not credulity ; faith never 
can be blind. The mere letter will always kill, and 
the more mere letter a man hath, the more killed he 



THE TRINITY. 



143 



will be. Any system which denies us inquiry, is a sys- 
tem of death, not of life. That is faith, which not only 
accepts a thing as being, but knows it cannot be other- 
wise. Galileo had faith as to the revolution of the 
planets ; when he rose from his knees, after saying they 
did not move, with the expression : " Still they do move 
notwithstanding T Peter and John had faith, when the 
kingdom they had built in the air, out of Christ's words 
in their ears, had vanished, and they felt that what was 
in Christ alone was royal and glorious. He who has the 
most knowledge, ivill have the most faith. I do not mean 
that he who knows most of the world will have most 
faith in Christ. He who knows most of Christ, will 
have most faith in Him. He to whose inner soul Christ 
is most truly revealed, will have the highest faith in 
Him. Our faith in Him is skin-deep, because words of 
His have reached the ear, but not the mind and the 
heart. We are faithless, because we have given up 
knowing, in the thought that we already know. 

Around the orbit of the human mind lie, and perhaps 
will forever lie, great facts, like the systems in the Zodiac 
round the orbit of the earth. They are there, and we 
cannot altogether penetrate them, and we call them mys- 
teries. Still, great are the unfoldings of time. Age 
lends help to ages. Man defines for man, and though 
we see at first through a glass darkly, we are going on 
to know, as also we are known. 

The doctrine of the Trinity, the fact that the divine 
unity is a Trinity, is a mystery, yet is there so much 
of it known, that the degree of belief with which we 
receive it, rises up into the regions of purest faith. 

Still, I approach it with reverence and deep humility, 
mindful that the theme takes us into precious and per- 



144 



SERMONS. 



haps toilsome thoughts, thoughts which will reach further 
than the expression, thoughts of which the expression, 
however perfect, will still be liable to be misunderstood. 
The manifestations of it in Scripture are manifold. 
The words which express Deity in the Old Testament, 
suggest a Trinity. The ancient languages were in their 
forms more expressive than ours. For God, the Mosaic 
record employs a form not merely dual, or plural, but 
triple. Moses, in prescribing the form of divine bene- 
diction, uses a threefold expression, the word God in 
each part having a specific and separate accent. The 
letter or symbol of God, which the Hebrews wore 
upon their phylacteries, was composed of three vertical 
lines, standing upon a common base. 

Passing by the fact of Christ's baptism, of which we 
have spoken, the discourses of Christ, especially toward 
the close of His ministry, are filled with instructions 
relative to the Trinity, specifying the offices of Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost, expressing the Trinity, at the 
same time the unity, finally culminating in the com- 
mand — wherever we taught of God, which must be 
everywhere, we must teach that He is Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost. Then, too, the significance of the fact, 
that the baptism of Christ was the occasion of the great 
manifestation of the Trinity. (Matthew 3.) 

Then in nature, throughout all her works, God has 
suggested this idea of a divine Trinity in unity, and 
unity in Trinity. The difficulties which involve this 
fact in mystery, do not proceed from the fact itself, nor 
do they proceed from our knowledge. They grow di- 
rectly and exclusively out of our ignorance, and that 
in two ways — first, from what we know absolutely no- 
thing about, and secondly, from what we have taken 



THE TRINITY. 



145 



for granted we know, i. e., from our ignorance absolute, 
and from our error, e. g., we do not know what God is. 
We cannot define Him. " He is far above, out of our 
sight." Then, we do not know what God the Father 
is, nor what God the Son is, nor what God the Holy 
Ghost is. We can only knoiv a thing when we know 
all of that thing. We cannot know all of God, for only 
God Himself knows that. This is the one thing we 
shall be forever learning — God. Ordinarily we use the 
word God loosely, unclefinedly. When we conceive of 
God the Father, we conceive of Him as if He were the 
Deity. We put a part for the whole. When we con- 
ceive of God the Son, we conceive of Him as if He 
were the Deity. We still put a part for the whole. 
When we conceive of God the Holy Ghost, we conceive 
of Him as if He were the Deity. We again put a part 
for the whole. We use the word God, in precisely the 
same sense as we use the word Deity. Or, otherwise 
to express it, we have no word expressive of the whole, 
which is not also used to express the parts. We say, 
" the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is 
God." Then the inevitable sequence in the mind is, 
there are three Gods, and how can three be one — hence 
comes confusion. We ask, can that which is not 
everything, or all, be God ? Yes, it may be God, but 
not the whole of God. The Father is not the Son, nor 
the Holy Ghost. The Son is not the Father, nor the 
Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is not the Father nor the 
Son. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost together are the 
Deity. We cannot say the Father is the Deity, the Son 
is the Deity, the Holy Ghost is the Deity. We can say, 
the Father is Deity, all that the Father is, is Deity, all 
that the Son is, is Deity, all that the Holy Ghost is, is 



146 



SERMONS. 



Deity — and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
together, are the Deity. Take an illustration. Of a 
triangle — the first side is triangle, not the whole of 
the triangle, not the triangle, but the whole side is tri- 
angle, the second side is triangle, the third side is tri- 
angle. You see here we are obliged to use the same terms 
expressive of part, as we clo in expressing the whole. 
And yet there are not three triangles, but one triangle, 
and there is one triangle only in the three together. 
Take the American flag ; the red is flag, not the whole 
of the flag, not the flag, but all the red is flag, the white 
is flag, and the blue is flag, and yet there are not three 
flags, but one flag, and but one ; because they are three. 
These three agree in one. They are the same in sub- 
stance, the same in power, one is essential to the other. 
Where the one is the other is. What the one does the 
other does. Unless the three are together the flag is not, 
and unless they are three, they are not one. So God 
the Father is God the Father, God the Son is God the 
Son, God the Holy Ghost is God the Holy Ghost, and 
yet there are not three Gods, but one God, each of the 
same power and essence, only one not the other. Each 
in His separate office, these separate offices very clearly 
indicated by the Saviour — three because they are one, 
and one because they are three, all together the one 
eternal Trinity in unity, and unity in Trinity. 

But, I apprehend, our great difficulty, in receiving 
the doctrine of the Trinity, is not so much in the doc- 
trine itself, as in our various associations with that doc- 
trine. We wisely associate Jesus Christ with the Dei- 
ty. We wisely believe Him to be the Son of God. 
We worship Christ as God "manifest in the flesh," for- 
getting that it is God manifest in the flesh — L e., God 



THE TRINITY. 



147 



only so far as God, could be manifest in the flesh. Be- 
cause in Him dwelt the " fullness of the Godhead bodi- 
ly," or incarnately, we forget that it was the fullness of 
" grace and truth." Because Christ said : " He that 
hath seen me hath seen the Father," we forget He also 
said : "No man hath seen God at any time." In these 
and other ways we fail to get a true conception of Dei- 
ty, and then in the absence of such conception lapse 
into doubt and confusion. We do not define the differ- 
ence between the Deity, and the fact of manifested Deity. 
We forget that it would not be possible for us to receive 
a full manifestation of God. It is literally true, as Mo- 
ses said : " No man can see God and live." If Christ 
Jesus were God the Son, you perceive, from what has 
been said, He would still not be the whole of the Deity. 
But being God the Son, it does not follow that He re- 
vealed even the whole of that personality to us. You 
must recollect He is not God the Son from any idea of 
filiation. He would still have been God the Son, even 
if He had never been son of man. The word Son ex- 
presses an essence and yet a separate personality. 
That He did not reveal the whole of that personality to 
us, you have confirmed, not only in the nature of things, 
but also in the record of Scripture. On one occasion, 
in the presence of three disciples He was transfigured. 
There was a degree of manifestation more than ordinary, 
and that one degree more, overwhelmed the three wit- 
nesses. Shall we say there were no degrees of His 
glory beyond that ? If they were not able to compre- 
hend the lesser, would they have been able to compre- 
hend the greater ? You bring the sun, the solar lumin- 
ary, down here, and we are not able to contemplate the 
sun. In His prayer for His disciples just before He 



148 



SERMONS. 



was offered, He asked that they might be with Him, to 
behold that glory which He had with the Father before 
the world began. There was assertion, you perceive, of 
a glory which they had not seen, Christ was God mani- 
fest in the flesh, God the Son, not all the Deity. In 
the flesh He manifested not all there was of God the 
Son, only that which was necessary to His redeeming 
work and our salvation. Even of the manifestation He 
made, we yet see only the beginning. All we can see 
of God is in Him, but there is that of God, He laid 
aside, in order to make to us any revelation of God at 
all. What He wanted to reveal of God, what we wanted 
to know of God, was " grace and truth," God's character. 
" Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He veiled 
Himself, took the form of a servant, the more certainly 
to come within the limits of our comprehension. The 
lowest form He could assume was beyond our grasp. 
Had He been further removed, He could have made us 
no manifestation at all. 

In order to make myself the better understood, let 
us take an illustration : Suppose, on one of the planets 
there was an intelligent class of beings, only very dif- 
ferent from ourselves — suppose it were necessary to 
make ourselves known to them, and only one way was 
possible, and that possibility involving the mission of 
one person from us to them. Now man, though a uni- 
ty, is also a duality. Man is not male, nor female, but 
the unit man, or humanity is man and woman. Man is 
not woman — woman is not man, but both together make 
man. Here, however, you have man used in two senses, 
one in a limited and the other in a distributed sense, 
and so it is better to say man and woman together make 
manhood. Hence, it might be said, man is manhood, 



THE TRINITY. 



149 



woman is manhood, for we have attributes in common ; 
the nature is identical; and yet we differ — so differ, 
that by no possibility can one take the place of the 
other. Now, again, it might be said, man is a trinity, 
which is much nearer the truth, for man is man and 
woman and spirit, or male, female, and character — for 
man is not God, nor devil, nor brute, in his nature, but 
with an essence of being peculiarly human, which es- 
sence makes a third element as separate, important and 
peculiar as either of the other two — so that, unless you 
express the character of man as distinguished from God, 
from brute and devil, you do not express man at all. 
Now, which one shall we send to those people upon the 
planet, to manifest manhood? We might send a woman. 
She would represent the whole manhood, and yet con- 
tinue peculiarly and emphatically woman, too- — i. <?., the 
fullness of manhood would be in her, and yet, they 
would not perceive it, because they could have no com- 
plete conception of it, till they had seen it in action as 
we see it, with all its developments and belongings — all 
its permutations and combinations. But suppose, in- 
stead of wearing her own form and language, she had to 
take their form and language. How the limitations 
multiply, and the difficulties of a perfect revelation in- 
crease ! She would reveal the manhood to them, and 
yet not all the manhood. She could tell them wonder- 
ful things, and yet they not understand them — not be- 
cause they were not manhood, but because they, in 
their limitations, could not receive her. 

Now, this is the way I understand God — Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost — the one not the other — not three 
Gods, but all together one God; the Father in His office, 
the Son in His, the Holy Ghost in His. The Son in 



150 



SERMONS. 



His office came to represent God to us, i. 0., God in His 
character, " grace and truth " — came to do a divine 
work for us. He did it; He did it under limitations 
our nature imposed, not His. Though He were exclu- 
sively and simply God the Son, yet He knew the Father, 
in a certain sense was the Father, and, in a certain sense, 
they who had seen Him had seen the Father, and yet 
no man had seen God at any time. The Father was in 
Him, and He in the Father. The Spirit was in Him, 
and He in the Spirit. The whole three one, the whole 
three Deity. He, God manifest in the flesh, the re- 
vealer, atonement, and mediator. 

This is what God is, a Trinity. Christ came to teach 
us that. But for Him we could not have known it — but 
for Him we could not have known God was " grace and 
truth." This was part of the work He came to do. But 
more especial!?/, this and all His work was, that we might 
be taken into this unity. Let us not lose sight of that, for 
if we do, we lose sight of the one practical object of the 
incarnation. He taught us, and commanded us to teach 
one another, " to observe all things whatsoever He had 
commanded us." You see it is easy to determine what 
religion is, not something made since Christ was here, 
but something made while Christ was here. The whole 
object of Christ, as of all revelation, is to bring us into 
divine unity, into union with the divine nature. Be- 
yond all doubt moral nature is one, a unity — i. e., the 
same nature that is in God is also in man. I do not 
say that man is God, but in His image we were created. 
God exists for man. Man is made to exist in God and 
with God. Every yearning of the human heart, the 
cry of the ages has taught us that. We had lost the 
unison and the knowledge of it. One great part of the 



THE TRINITY. 



151 



object contemplated in the incarnation was to teach us 
of the character of God. The whole object of the in- 
carnation was that we might be conformed to that char- 
acter and so made capable of dwelling with God. It 
was not to reveal the whole Deity to us, but that much 
of the Deity, we were immediately interested in know- 
ing. That prayer of the Mediator, just as He was 
finishing His work, thrills us with conviction of it. 
" That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, 
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us. I in 
them, and them in me, that they may be made perfect 
in one." Yes ; this divine and perfect harmony and uni- 
ty, between Creator and creation, between the Infinite 
and the finite, this is the one longing of time, that it 
might be, did God the Father send the Son, and give 
the Holy Ghost. Mysterious all the way through ! 
How we, such beings as we are, can still be scintilations 
of the divine, only God knoweth. So has He been 
pleased to order. But that it is so, all nature and all 
grace, all earth and all heaven, combine to tell us. All 
the laws of fluids are in a single drop of water. A drop 
of water is not, however, the ocean. How God could 
put the properties of ocean into a simple globule is 
known only to Him. But there they are. We finite 
creatures are little globules, out of our place, out of God ; 
soiled, corrupt, needing to come back and be taken once 
more into the fullness of being, into the infinite harmo- 
ny, into eternal perfection. That perfection is a triune 
essence — Father, Son and Holy Ghost. So the Re- 
vealer, revealed. So reason deduces — so faith believes. 
The way for us to get into that perfection, into the full 
soul-revelation of God, is to observe all things whatso- 
ever the Son of God hath commanded. May we all in 



152 SERMONS. 

the confession of a true faith, truly worship the eternal 
Trinity, and in the way which Christ hath commanded, 
be taken at last into the glory of the eternal Unity. 



PROVIDENCE. 

Romans 9 : 21. — Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same 
lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor ? 

In the chapter preceding this. St. Paul has been 
showing the Romans that they who are in Christ Jesus 
are free from condemnation. The truth of the propo- 
sition commends itself at once to any reflecting mind, 
when the Apostle explains that he means by being in 
Christ Jesus, walking according to God's holy law, liv- 
ing upon the spiritual plane. He who lives according 
to any law is universally uncondemned by that law. 
He is free from its penalties. He participates only in 
its blessings. A contrast then follows between the 
harm that comes of the flesh, i. e., our perverted flesh, 
our unenlightened wills, our unsanctified affections; and, 
the good which follows from obeying the spirit, walking, 
as God designed we should, as nature invites, and wis- 
dom suggests, in harmony with the laws of divine provi- 
dence, laws embracing the highest good of all creatures, 
especially all intelligent and moral creatures, leading on- 
ward from one grade of excellence to another, from 
one stage of happiness to the perfection of angels. 

This happiness and perfection for moral beings, this 



PROVIDENCE. 



153 



life upon the spiritual plane, the Apostle asserts to be 
and to have been from all eternity, the one purpose of 
God in creating moral beings. In the nature of things, 
it must be so. The divine benevolence could wish 
nothing short of it, and the divine wisdom could not 
fail to make laws capable of producing it. This happi- 
ness and exaltation of moral beings was part of God's 
design in having any universe at all, and therefore, all 
things in the divine economy tend to help on the wise 
soul toward the desired end. In this purpose, joy and 
pain come together, and find a common mission — pain, to 
turn the soul back from wrong, and/cy, to quicken its 
progress toward the right. So plain is this purpose in 
being, so emphatically is it the burden of all laws, the 
Apostle calls it " predestination ." Thus any consum- 
mation contemplated in divine providence is "predesti- 
nation." This world will eventually develop and come 
out into truth, and beauty, and holiness. It is pre- 
destined to do it. Predestination is in all things, things 
working according to their laws. The mention of joy and 
pain, however, leads us to define what moral being is, 
and that is a hard thing to do. It is that part of being 
to which more laws attach than to any other part of 
being. It is, in a certain sense, a perfected being, and 
therefore, in a certain sense, a complicated being. It 
is being involving greatest powers, and therefore, in 
misdirection, involving greatest danger. It is being, 
the inherent essence of which is self-action. It is bein^ 
upon which devolves the necessity of knowing its own 
being, i. e., having a rational consciousness of it, and 
of acting according to its laws. It is being, which must 
learn its meaning, and guide its action by a knowledge 
of all other being. It is being, made for truth, and the 



/ 



154 SERMONS. 

glory of which is proportioned to the truth it embraces. 
A stone is not a moral being, because it is incapable 
of self-action. It can only act as it is acted upon. A 
horse is not a moral being, because it is not capable of 
a knowledge of all other being. It has no rational con- 
sciousness of its own existence, and its destiny is not 
affected by its own volition. Moral being involves so- 
cial being, and out of society grows its weal or its woe. 
God is the highest moral being. He is moral being 
perfected. In short, moral being is a plane of exist- 
ence, which, for you or me not to reach, is for you or 
me to be lost, and to be lost in proportion as we fail to 
reach it. It is a general conception of highest moral 
being, of God, that it is an arbitrary being — that it 
can make things be or not be as it prefers — that it 
could put something in the universe, or leave something 
out, or make something different, if it only chose. 
This is a mistake. Nothing in the universe is, or can 
be, arbitrary. Nothing can be without law. What- 
ever is, is necessary to the universe, without which 
there could not have been a universe. Only the uni- 
verse itself is arbitrary. Whatever is there, must be 
so, because by no possibility could it otherwise be or 
not be. We cannot ask, therefore, why God, did not 
make us perfect, if He made us at all. He did make 
us perfect. He made us perfectly moral beings. We 
cannot ask, why He did not make us otherwise, for 
then He could not have made us moral beings at all. 

Here we are in a universe of law, with a destiny in 
that law for us. . We know that. That makes us ac- 
countable moral beings, or moral being itself makes us 
accountable. What destiny will we have? We can 
make nothing. We can change nothing, that is made. 



PROVIDENCE. 



155 



We can make ourselves and our destiny. That is all. 
What destiny will we have ? If according to the laws 
that are, then we are predestined to power and great 
glory. If not according to laws that are, then of neces- 
sity we are predestined to pain and humiliation, not be- 
cause God wishes it so — i. e., because he wishes the 
pain and humiliation, but because He does not wish it so. 
He wishes you to turn back again from the unwise 
and pursue the wise. The mission of what we call evil 
is good. Pain has the same general office as pleasure. 
He who is in the pain is very unfortunate and therefore 
so many agencies try to rescue him. We are in pain, be- 
cause we are wrong and it is pain, if possible, to turn 
us into the right. Hence what we call evil, is because 
God is good. When it is said God predestines us, it is 
not that He picks out you and picks out me and says 
you shall walk this way and I walk that way. But 
when I choose to walk that way, then I am predestined, 
and when you choose to walk this way then you are 
predestined, because a part of this predestination is — L 
e., in the nature of things. You are predestined to 
choose. God's law is, that your will, within its sphere, 
which is very small, shall be supreme. God's benevolent 
wish is, that you shall be wise. These two, God's law and 
His affectionate desire, are the divine will. The two 
sides of the one thing. The gospel of Christ, all that in- 
carnation of the Son of God, is as much a part of the 
universe as gravitation or electricity, as the mind or the 
soul. If you walk according to that, you are not con- 
demned, because you are upon the spiritual plane. If 
you do not walk according to that you are condemned, 
because you are not upon the spiritual plane. It is not 
that God condemns or acquits, but the simple fact of 



156 



SERMONS. 



your action itself. That it .is which condemns or ac- 
quits. " I am not come to condemn," says the Saviour. 
He came if possible to show us the way out of all con- 
demnation, came to save. 

Now to make us conscious of this being, of the nature 
of it, we are set down in the midst of an economy. 
This economy we call providence, all of it, strange as it 
may seem, perfectly adapted to us, and we to that. It 
was made for this very end which we are contemplating. 
Whatever comes, it will define moral being for us, and 
it will fix our grade in that moral being. You can no 
more escape it than you can escape existence. You 
might prefer that you had not existed, but that makes 
no difference, only to prove that already you are upon 
the wrong side of predestination. This economy , or 
providence, is God's household — every particle of it — 
this world, all that pertains to it. He has some very 
idle and wicked servants in it, but they are His, not the 
less. They must give account. It will not do to make 
the Church His household, and all outside of it not His 
household. Then we do what God has not done, and 
will not allow to be done. We are all vessels in the 
household, every one of us. In that household is an in- 
finite variety of wants, therefore an infinite variety of ves- 
sels or utensils, or servants, not one of them unnecessary, 
not one mean in itself, naturally, originally. Some may 
be more prominent and some more obscure, some more 
" honorable," and some less " honorable" but all alike 
designed, and each, in its proper work, equally to the 
glory of God. Over it God presides. He has a will as 
we have. He has purposes as we have. He knows 
laws as we do, only He knows more laws and all laws 
perfectly. He works by those laws, employs all agen- 



PROVIDENCE. 



157 



cies to perfect His plans. In His plans there are resis- 
ting agencies, so there are in ours. You work notwith- 
standing, and so He works notwithstanding, only He 
knows all laws and works wisely. We know only a 
few laws, therefore are very often defeated. When we 
talk of our will interfering with God's will, we place too 
high an estimate upon ourselves. We, individually, or, 
a whole generation of us, are, as compared with God, 
not so much as a mote in the sunbeam. One ant in 
your cellar could not materially disturb your domestic 
economy. Not one of us can interfere with God. All 
we can do is to affect our own destiny, or possibly to 
complicate that of some other atom like ourselves. 
This is what we understand by providence, God ming- 
ling in these affairs, preventing the wicked from destroy- 
ing the race, and helping the righteous to build it up in 
peace and good-will, not creating any law, not violating 
any law, not doing anything arbitrarily, but just simply 
working, the same as a parent works for his children in 
benevolence and love, not only by agencies and laws 
within His reach, but by agencies and laws, existing for 
that purpose. 

From this point, then, you can plainly see the differ- 
ence between the man and the position of the man — be- 
tween the being and the situation which defines the 
being. You plainly see that the position has nothing 
to do with the man, but the man every thing to do with 
the position. One man has nothing to do with another 
man's office, and no man in another office can be respon- 
sible for you in yours. Each man is but responsible for 
himself in his own office, wherever or whatever that 
might be. It is not for us to be longing for other posi- 
tions, but to do our duty in the position in which we 



SERMONS. 



are. We may be prominent, or we may be obscure, but 
we may be as well off one where as another where, for 
it is all blessing to have part or lot in this household at 
all. 

Now, it is this position, you observe, which is deter- 
mined without our consent — not arbitrarily, not without 
law, but still not by our volition, only by the law of 
God's knowledge, wisdom and love, God's supremacy. 
But what we will be in the position, is left to us. 
It is this providence of God which determines this posi- 
tion. You may be born in one circle in life, or another. 
That is what is called an accident of life. It is not ac- 
cidental in the sense that there is no known law which 
determines the fact ; but accidental, in the sense that 
to be born at all you must be born somewhere. You 
may be born of parentage wise or foolish ; with a con- 
stitution strong, or weak ; with a mind of a high order, 
or of a low order ; with passions more or less active. 
All these things will determine your degree in the scale 
of God's household arrangement. They will determine 
the offices you are to hold, or not to hold ; send us out 
to prominence or obscurity, greater or less ; to trials of 
one kind or another ; surround us with responsibilities, 
more or less weighty. You may be a Pharaoh or a 
Moses, an Esau or a Jacob, it matters not which you 
are. There is no wrong in making you one or the other. 
Wherever you are, your surroundings and responsibili- 
ties are equal, and in that fact, the equality between 
surroundings and responsibility, we are all alike and 
stand upon one and the same level, and therein all men 
are equal. But these positions and relations, or our place 
in the household, is not ourselves. There is another ele- 
ment in us, over us, by which we are worthy or unwor- 



PROVIDENCE. 



159 



thy, by which we have merit or demerit, by which we 
are right or wrong, wise or unwise, saved or lost. There 
are principles attaching to us, moral essences that come 
in, known to us, to which we must have reference. 
There is justice and injustice, mercy and unmercy, love 
and unlove, self and unself, faithfulness and unfaithful- 
ness, the well-being of others and the ill-being of others, 
the honor of God and the dishonor of God. You see 
how this spiritual being strikes the region of spiritual 
laws, how moral elements in us respond to moral laws 
outside of us. Here you strike your personality, your 
individuality, yourself. Position is a common fact ; 
Providence has determined that. What you are in that 
position, you must determine. If you can be wise at 
all, or serve God at all, you can do it in one place as 
well as another. If you choose to live upon your ani- 
mal or carnal plane, you are predestined to sink down. 
If you choose to live upon the spirit plane, you are pre- 
destined to great glory. 

All this, however, would only fix the fact of your 
choice without involving the idea or fact of responsibil- 
ity, or guilt. And this develops another element, and 
a higher element, another fact, and a higher fact — the 
element of conscience on the one side, and God commu- 
nicating with that conscience on the other, not only 
nature inside of us, and nature outside of us, but God 
in active paternal love, working on the one by means of 
the other. We come to the fact of a moral sense God 
has put in us, something responsive to the right, a 
something which we must pervert and blunt and resist 
in order to go wrong, something with which we must 
live in a constant state of protest if we continue in the 
wrong. It is this constant state of protest, this violation 



160 



SERMONS. 



of your conscience, which makes guilt ; which , is the sin 
against the Holy Ghost. God is made for the soul, and 
the soul is made for God, and there is communication 
between the two — -just as vegetation is made for the 
sun, and the sun is made for vegetation, and they are 
responsive one to the other. You come then, here, to 
the supreme fact, the fact to which I wished to bring 
you, the fact stamped upon this day, Whitsun Day, the 
gift of the Holy Ghost, the divine power and love, dwelling 
in us and with us, God, a Father, and Counsellor, and 
Guide. Heaven and earth, not two but one. Man and 
God, not at enmity, but reconciled — man taken into 
God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

We are prepared, now, in a measure, to understand 
some of these expressions of St. Paul. He says, some 
false reasoner, some bungling thinker, looking out up- 
on this being, will conclude, because places in God's 
household are fixed — therefore, they who are in these 
places are made in them what they are morally. 
Whereas, it is only when you strike what they make 
themselves, that you strike the moral at all. Looking 
upon the history of the Jews — God's calling Jacob rather 
than Esau, will imply that Esau was condemned, be- 
cause Jacob was chosen. Whereas, there was no con- 
demnation about it. Only one was wanted. The very 
fact of choosing implied a rejection, but no depreciation. 
Esau was not fitted for a given position, and there- 
fore to that position was not called. He had no faith. 
He saw nothing of divine things. He cared nothing 
about them. He chose to live upon the animal plane, 
and God wanted something upon the spirit plane. Jacob 
was fitted, and to it he was called, and in it he was as 
responsible, as Esau in his. Eventually he perverted his 



PROVIDENCE. 



161 



privileges, and fell to a woe greater than any Esau ever 
knew, and God did not make Esau unfaithful, any more 
than He afterwards made Jacob unfaithful. He blessed 
both and if the children of both exist to this day, 
they exist in the common mercy of God, and it is diffi- 
cult to decide which are the better off. This same 
wrong thinker will continue his gaze, and imagine that 
God arbitrarily made Pharaoh what he was, whereas, 
it was the exact purpose and wish of God that he should 
be different, who employed all possible means to make 
him different. Because being, in spite of everything, 
a given material, God worked Him into fabric, as God 
will work all material into His fabric, for nature knows no 
waste. This wrong thinker will conceive God arbitra- 
rily made him such material in order to have him to 
work up into His fabric. Out of all this, he will infer, 
that every man is just what he cannot help being, and 
therefore, is not accountable for his actions. He cannot 
help asking, " why doth God find fault with us, since 
no man hath resisted His will ?" 

Yes, my hearer, if you are not responsible before 
God, how pertinent that question is — why doth God 
find fault with you in }^our error, your wrong, your 
trangression ? Do you wonder St. Paul indignantly 
and emphatically repels such a thought ? " Who art 
thou, man" — or ivhat a man thou art ! how little of a 
man there is in you, to reply so against God — against 
all His providence, against His very design in giving 
us any moral law at all. What else does a moral law 
imply, but a responsibility ? What a man thou art, to 
make out God like us — playing providence, inconsistent, 
unequal, unjust, calling upon us for a service we have 
no power to render, and demanding of us a life it was 



162 



SERMONS. 



never intended we should live ! Let the simple fact, 
that a holy life is demanded, prove that thou art inex- 
cusable, man, whosoever thou art, that thus repliest 
against God. Has not the potter power over the clay, 
of the same lump to make a vessel unto honor, another 
unto dishonor ? Does he not know, exactly, what this 
economy requires ? Did potter, out of any lump, ever 
yet make vessels which had no purpose at all ? Did 
potter ever yet make vessels just simply to he de- 
stroyed ? Is the clay not honored, in being fashioned 
to any service for the master's use ? What a man thou 
art ! You might as well complain that the great All- 
Father who made man in the beginning, male and 
female, has now, in His providence, made you a man 
and not a woman. What a blessing it is, God does 
know what to make us. What a wonder it is, the race 
keeps on just equally divided, male and female still. 
But for this divine hand, guided by an omniscient wis- 
dom, how soon would the whole race cease to exist. How 
soon would the world lapse to its primeval being, and 
the original purpose in any world at all, be defeated. 
How soon would it be requisite to form another crea- 
tion, and try another experiment. Do you see no provi- 
dence ? No wisdom in providence ? What a blessing 
it is that He who knows exactly whether to make us 
male or female, knows exactly also, whether to put us 
in one position or another, so that our whole economy 
shall be kept up. And how blessed we are to be where 
God has put us, and to be what He has made us, rather 
than to be anywhere else. With what earnestness and 
love should we study His will, and yearn for His glory, 
since the true service of the Creator, is the exaltation 
of the creature. What a blessing it is, not only that 



PROVIDENCE. 



163 



when God does make us, He makes us male and female, 
but that He makes most of us under those conditions 
in life which compel us to use our God-given energies, 
under conditions which compel us to development. How 
strange it is, nearly all of us are vessels unto dishonor, 
i. e., vessels for use, for practical, e very-day purposes. 
How much wiser God is, in making the world, than we 
would be, if we had had the making of it. How foolish 
we are, not to study His will, and let Him make it as He 
would delight to have it. 

Now what I wish particularly to assert, what I be- i 
lieve the whole tenor of Christ's life and doctrine asserts, 
and what Paul wishes to assert, is this. We are all 
one family, under one impartial Father, every privilege 
of His grace and providence as much for one as another. 
This world, with the human family in it, composes 
God's earthly household. For all of it Christ Jesus died. 
For the whole of it, and each member of it, the spirit of 
God liveth. What else does that Scripture tell us which 
records the outpouring of the divine grace at Pentecost ? 
" How hear we in our tongue wherein we were born ? 
Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in 
Mesopotamia and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus 
and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphilia, in Egypt and the 
parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, 
Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do 
hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of 
God." Yes ! Every man heard, wherever he was horn, 
whether he were Jew or Pagan, whether he believed or 
not, all heard. The Holy Ghost spake. Yes ; breth- 
ren, that Pentecostal fact, is pregnant with truth which 
we have not all learned. God henceforth dwells with 
all men. Nor is there an ear which understandeth any 



164 



SERMONS. 



speech or language, to which that spirit does not speak. 
In whatever language your soul speaks to you, or you 
to it, God's spirit is there telling you of God's won- 
derful works. God's spirit is your enlightener and if 
you only zvould, would be your perfect Counseller and 
Guide, to this blessed predestination, this glory, eternal 
in heaven. 

As there is no part of the material universe, the light, 
the air, the laws of nature and providence, the benefits 
of which you do not share, so from no part of the moral 
provision, the soul-provision which God has made, are 
you excluded. As in your bodies God does much with- 
out your knowledge or will, and then leaves you to do 
the rest for yourselves — so for your soul God has done 
much and leaves you to do the rest, leaves you to make 
use of the elements He has bestowed. He has made a 
law of Redemption in Christ Jesus. You are redeemed 
whether you will or not. And you shall have the ten- 
der orifices of the Holy Ghost, whether you accept or 
repel, yes, even whether you know there is a Holy 
Ghost or not. The office of the Holy Ghost is to 
place your spirit in communion with God. The incar- 
nation is " God, manifest in the flesh." The office of 
the Holy Ghost is to take of the things of Jesus, because 
they are the things of God and reveal them unto us. 

So true is the remark that has been made, that God 
can do nothing without law, we find that the Holy Ghost 
was made known to mankind only when Christ had fur- 
nished a power by which the Holy Ghost could work. 
It is said that the Holy Ghost " was given " at Pente- 
cost ; but had there been no Holy Ghost antecedently ? 
Then, by whom spake the Prophets ? By what power 
had so many spiritual facts been accomplished ? The 



PROVIDENCE. 



165 



Holy Ghost had, in the incarnation, a new lever, so to 
speak — a new means. His power was accordingly 
greater and His manifestation corresponding. 

Hence the power of Christianity over heathendom — • 
not that God's Spirit is not with the heathen, but that 
the thing to be revealed has only dimly been manifest- 
ed. They are as the whole world was before Christ 
came. Carry them Christ, and not some horrible sec- 
tarian effigy, and we might look for great results. Even 
among ourselves, if the presentation of the Church were 
in spirit and in truth, practically and theoretically, ob- 
jectively and subjectively, only Christ, we should expe- 
rience greater things. 

Hence the office and duty of the Church to preach 
Christ, leaving results to the Holy Ghost. 

This whole subject is peculiarly prolific, branching as 
it does into the thoughts suggested by the Gospel for 
Whit-Sunday — the Comforter, the oneness of God and 
His children. 

These three things, — we and Christ and the Holy 
Ghost, — are for each other. The office of the Holy Ghost 
is to spiritual things what light is to physical things. 
You have an eye, which was intended to give you know- 
ledge of outward objects. Out before you is a beauti- 
ful landscape. But it is night. The eye is useless. 
The landscape is as though it was not. But the sun 
arises — light, silent, serene, unites the two, and while 
it is that power without which all else were useless, it 
is that power which says nothing of itself. So the office 
of the Holy Ghost is to take of the things of Christ and 
reveal them unto us. Many a man can see no beauty 
in a landscape — many a man can see no beauty in Christ. 
But by the love of God we all have this light if we will 



166 



SERMONS. 



only use it. If you will accept that law, if you will 
take Christ for a Saviour, if His atonement can be your 
plea of acceptance, if His precept and example can be 
your idea of acceptabkness, your hope of glory, then you 
can be saved. Your position in life is just the best one 
you could have, if it be one which God has given you. 
It will give you opportunity to be saved, and test 
whether you are faithful or unfaithful. You may be a 
king, a governor, a head of a family. You may be 
lonely, obscure, unknown. All that matters nothing. 
Not always is that which is most distinguished, the 
most truly honorable. The ornaments in our parlors 
have their places and their purposes. But those ob- 
scure agencies which maintain the comfort and order 
of our dwellings are more truly honorable than they. 
The blackened utensils which give us food at the ap- 
pointed hour, are more honorable than the gilded clock 
which only tells us that the hour has come. In God's 
economy nothing is mean. It is a glorious thing to 
serve God, and he who stands in any lot to do that, to 
bless the race of which he is a part, to live out a poem 
of usefulness and holiness, is as honorable a spectacle as 
any on which the eyes of men, or of angels can rest. 
And He who stands in any lot, unmindful of God, for- 
getful of his soul, neglectful of divine and holy things, 
have what he may, or think what he may, is already 
condemned. It had been better for him if he had never 
been born, not because God will take anything from him, 
but because he has not reached out after what God 
longed to give him. He has sinned and continues to 
sin, the one sin, against the Holy Ghost, the one sin 
which hath never forgiveness, because it precludes all 
conditions which can make forgiveness of any value. 



THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I. 



167 



Brethren, where do we stand to-day ? Are we saved ? 
Are we lost ? What mean the life, the death, the cross, 
the resurrection and ascension of the Son of God ? 
What mean the whisperings of the Holy Ghost ? What 
mean our days, our years, our lives ? What mean our 
positions ? Are they those God has given us ? are we 
using them for His glory ? What record are we mak- 
ing above — faithful, or unfaithful ? Solomon says, " a 
faithful servant shall share with the heir in the inherit- 
ance." Christ Jesus said, " I call you no more servants, 
but friends, and sons. The Holy Ghost says, " If we 
are sons, we are also heirs, joint heirs with Christ, to 
an inheritance incorruptable and undefined, and that 
fadeth not away." To that inheritance, that sonship, 
God calls us. Let us hear, believe, obey, and live, day 
by day, studying to be faithful in doing our very best, 
in that state of life to which it has pleased God to 
call us. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. — No. I. 



Luke 15 : 11, 12, 13. — And He said, a certain man had two sons, and the 
younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods 
that falleth to me, and He divided unto them His living. And not many- 
days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into 
a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 



This parable of the Prodigal Son, is the third of a very 
remarkable series. The three form a constellation upon 
which the eyes of eighteen hundred years have rested, 



168 



SERMONS. 



with all the emotions of joy and hope. The three are 
so many parts of one discourse. The thought in them 
all is the same. Each one only increases its degree. 
Perhaps, within so small a compass, there never before 
was so much taught. This chapter embraces, in a 
certain sense, the whole Gospel in itself. The burden 
of it is, the love of God for all His children — a love above 
all loves, the one thing which, be life what it may, it alone 
never dies. Around the thought is woven every con- 
ceivable circumstance of aggravation or unworthiness, 
on our part — that the Fatherhood of God may stand out 
supreme and absolute. That it was intended to teach. 
That it does teach. All else is only accessory. On a 
certain occasion, Christ said He had not come to con- 
demn the world, but to save the world. That seems to 
have been the one yearning, burning thought of all His 
life, and it is worth while to observe here how sponta- 
neously it gushes from His warm and sympathetic heart. 
In these parables there is nothing of learned elabora- 
tion. They are as simple as the utterances of a child. 
There was no time for premeditation — but their grasp 
is infinite. It embraces God, and time, and the human 
race. 

The parables were a response to the Scribes and Phari- 
sees. We must recollect that, or we shall miss much 
of their meaning. The Scribes and Pharisees had found 
fault with Him for receiving sinners, and communing 
with them. These parables were the instant reply. 
They as much as say, what else should I do ? Who 
can need nry help as much as they ? What would a 
salvation be, which deserted us in exact proportion as 
it was needed ? That, surely, would be a human way 
of doing things — of loving those who love us, a selfish 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. I. 



169 



way. not imparting blessing, but valuing people because 
we could of them receive blessing — being kind as long 
as they did not need the kindness. But that is not 
God's way. God does not look upon sin so much as a 
fault, as a misfortune. Of all things in the universe, it 
is the unnatural thing, the undesirable thing, on both 
sides. It is that thing which disturbs all relations, 
and defeats all purpose. Man was made for God. A 
thousand divine objects are contemplated in man's exist- 
ence. An abstract existence, an existence just for him- 
self, even if it were possible, would make him fall short of 
all design, and therefore, not fulfil his existence, not 
unfold his being. God is thus interested. His affec- 
tions, His sympathies are enlisted. If a man lose a 
sheep, it is the lost one he must go after. If a woman 
lose a piece of money, it is the lost piece she must be 
occupied about, till she find it. If a father lose a son, 
it is that son his heart follows, till he return. The 
question now is, not at all about any desert in the lost, 
whether it did right or did wrong, voluntarily or invol- 
untarily, there is loss. The question is wholly as to 
the owner, the Creator, the Father. What is He ? 
What is His nature ? Can He help ? Will He help ? 
Would it be worth while to have a Shepherd, if He 
could afford no aid ? Would the coin exist if it had no 
value ? Would it be a coin without an image and super- 
scription ? Would a father be a father, if he did not 
love ? Would there be any evidence of a superior 
nature, if, able to help, He still refused ? View God 
as the mere possessor of beings, which He has gathered 
for His own selfish purposes, or as a Father exercising 
affection, endowed with all the attributes of love — view 
man as having nothing, whatever, in common with God, 



170 



SERMONS. 



.or as having merely a sort of . divine stamp upon him, 
or as endowed with the same nature, and possessed of 
faculties and. yearnings, exactly responsive to those of 
a Father — still, in either case, you must see how it is, 
of necessity, the lost, sick, erring one, for whom God 
cares. 

I ask you to take particular notice of these thoughts. 
They are peculiar to Christ. We Christians do not, or 
at any rate, did not always understand them. In the 
face of the Gospel, where the questions of total de- 
pravity and original sin came from, is inconceivable. 
The Gospel is the " good neivs" of restoration, the call to 
us to come home. It presupposes the thing Christ pre- 
supposes in these parables — a right to us that God has. 
That right is now twofold — first, by creation, second, 
by redemption. It asks for the third, the right by our 
volition. It presupposes in us, an adaptation, first, to 
God's purposes, as the sheep and money are contem- 
plated in our economy, and second, a participation of 
nature, and consequent responsiveness, as a child to a 
parent. When God made us, as the rest of all His 
works, so we were very good. If we lost in Adam 
the divine image, then in Christ it was restored. We 
are all children, God's own beloved children, partici- 
pating His nature, germinally it is true, but still actu- 
ally having parts and faculties contemplated in the 
divine life, and intended for the divine life; made in 
God's image, employed in any other life, their object 
utterly defeated, and their possessor utterly a wreck, 
existence a burden, the soul, made to be a conscious 
joy, turned into one undying remorse. But, if it be in 
any other life, it must be there by its own act. If it 
go from God, it must go in spite of God's remonstrance, 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. I. 171 

of God's intention, of the divine desire. The divine 
laws permit it to go, because moral force forbids coercion ; 
but the divine benevelence wishes it not to go, and so 
surrounds it with restraints and warnings. The sin is, 
in not heeding the warning, in despising the restraints, 
in not responding to the divine nature, in being indif- 
ferent to the better and glorified being God intended 
for us. But, even when we are there, we are still 
God's. He is, while a grieving Father, still not a hating 
Father. He ceases not to yearn and to watch, and 
when we return, the first to see us, to greet us and 
bless us. 

Now, the race has ever been divided into those who 
were in their Father's house and those who wandered 
away, the religious and the irreligious, the son at home 
and the prodigal. You have here, therefore, " the two 
sons." The first remains at home. You see, sin is not 
the natural and first condition of man — God did not 
make you and crush you, start you out to begin with 
crooked and broken, asking of you what in the na- 
ture of things is impossible or unreasonable, when 
our translation says, <k the natural man receiveth not 
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolish- 
ness unto him, and neither can he know them, because 
they are spiritually discerned," it does not translate 
St. Paul. He says the man buried — abandoned to his 
gross animal nature does not receive, and that is very 
true. But that grosser animal nature is itself a devel- 
opment. It has grown there. It is by neglect or per- 
version of powers God made for very different purposes. 
This human nature, contemplated merely as a natural 
fact is a wonderful combination, or a combination of ex- 
alted and wonderful faculties. It implies just the 



172 



SERMONS. 



very destiny the Gospel contemplates for it. When 
you contemplate it as redeemed by grace, and aided by 
the Holy Ghost — the first bias or tendency is toward 
God — and where total neglect, or wrong education do 
not more than counteract that tendency the develop- 
ment is in that direction. I believe, and I think your 
experience and observation will sustain the thought — 
that the first impulses of youth are pure and noble. 
Have you never taken the hand of a young man in the 
first conscious flush of his manhood ? What impulses beat 
within him ? What schemes and achievements he pro- 
poses ! How unselfish ? How little he thinks or cares 
for what it is to cost. How sanguine, how he imagines 
all the world as pure and unselfish and noble as he is 
himself. When we recollect our own aspirations, when 
we sit down and contemplate youthful inspiration, how 
impossible not to feel that the image and superscription 
is from God's own stamp. How we who are older often 
stand and laugh at his inexperience, how we chill his 
ardor, how we give him his first lessons in selfishness, 
in suspicion and mistrust ! We whose business it is to 
build before him splendid idols, to guide his aspirations 
to grand and happy realization, to analyze life for him 
hat he ma>y distinguish the real from the delusive. We 
shall come to this, if it please God, when we come to 
speak of that older brother, that cold, selfish, calculating 
mortal who thought his very staying at home was a 
virtue. But I confess I have no sympathy with that 
spirit who is abroad in society who poisons life in its 
very fountains. How is it possible for our children to 
believe in virtue when they hear in our very houses 
that the whole earth is a hot-bed of all evil, of deceit 
and hypocrisy. Do children never reason ? Do they 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. I. 



173 



not often catch their first lessons in evil from our own 
life ? Do they never ask whether we are sincere in our 
professions of affection and piety ? When we hear peo- 
ple say every day that the world is devil-rid en, do they 
all speak out of their own experiences, are their words 
the overflowings of their hearts ? Take one single ex- 
ample. At this moment the world is afflicted with 
divorces, with divided families, with evils direct and 
indirect, not the least of which is the delay of marriage 
and in many instances its abandonment altogether. But 
why should not the evil exist and soon increase. I 
think if you listen you will find married life often 
laughed at and misrepresented by us who call ourselves 
Christian people. In our houses and our papers it is 
made the subject of jest, a happy home or a happy man 
is spoken of as the rarest thing in existence. We pic- 
ture husband and wife as always quarreling, or at any 
rate, as seldom happy, when not one of us out of all we 
know could count a dozen homes that are miserable, a 
dozen men and women who, even if they are not super- 
latively happy together would he superlatively miserable 
apart. 

We know that divorces are the exception, a small 
per centage, but we speak of them as the rule, and so 
familiarize the mind with the fact, and so, while com- 
plaining of the world's corruption, are doing much to 
corrupt it. No, I say that life in its beginning is pure 
and noble, and would be vastly purer and nobler, if we 
would believe in purity and nobleness. If our ideals 
were as high as our chilclrens, their realization would 
reach beyond our conceptions. If the troughs from 
which they drink are ring-streaked and spotted, what 
wonder they become ring-streaked and spotted them- 



174 



SERMONS. 



selves. The one want of our world now is, a real vir- 
tue, and real belief in virtue, when virtue is supposed 
to be a deeper apprehension of that for which we are 
apprehended. If the elder brother were better, the 
younger perhaps would not think of leaving home. 

But let us go back to the thought that the first im- 
pulses of life are pure and noble. You see it is not 
merely that we are as a sheep to a shepherd, without 
any nature in common. It is not merely as a piece of 
coin to a king, with a mere image and superscription, 
but it is a participation of real being, a responsiveness. 
Now undoubtedly it is the duty of the child to be worthy 
of its parentage. It should aim at such appreciation of 
the father's exalted character as to improve every privi- 
lege, every faculty, and so to honor the father. You 
see simply to fail there, simply not to contemplate, 
not to resolve upon high action is itself to be delinquent. 
The boy or the girl that can be insensible to a father s care 
and a fathers honor, has taken the first step in ingratitude 
and dishonor. You observe, life implies even in its very 
beginning, something to do, action. We generally im- 
agine we have something to do to be lost, but the fact 
is, we have something to do to be saved. Salvation 
is recognition of the divine nature and development into 
it. It must be not merely action, but high-born con- 
scious action. Even neglect is guilt. We will not 
stop to define guilt. It is difficult to tell what it is. 
But guilt is a thing felt. It is an effect, natural and 
instant. It is part of the perfection with which God has 
clothed all His works. If you do a mean thing, you feel 
mean, unless you are so inexpressibly mean as not to 
feel, not to feel guilt is to be most certainly guilty. 
We shall come to this when we come to the citizen of 



THE PRODIGAL SON — No. I. 



175 



the strange country, those so lost, so utterly u past feel- 
ing" as to be taken in by sin and naturalized. That is 
the extreme degree. But the neglect of which I have 
spoken is the first degree. In that you have the be- 
ginning of an alienation from home. When there is no 
love of a father, there will soon be a desire to be free 
from the restraints of a father. When there is no love 
of home, there w T ill be a love of some other place that 
is not home, a thing we who are supposed to have homes 
very often forget, and so fail to make the homes of our 
children what they ought to be. It is not enough to 
tell a child they should not find their pleasure abroad. 
We should see that they do find their pleasure at home 
— pleasure pure and holy — pleasure we create and pro- 
vide. — -pleasure that is worthy of us and worthy of them 
— pleasure that contemplates at once their young life 
and their future life. I do not say it is an easy thing 
to do, but I do think we could succeed better if we 
would try. I do not think we spend time enough with 
our children, and teach them to find real happiness with 
us. We should show them the real pleasure there is in 
the things they ought to take pleasure in, our real plea- 
sure in it. 

There is, however, to all inexperience, evermore the 
desire to go out and try for itself. Any of us, even af- 
ter years of experience, are apt to imagine that some 
other place is better and easier for us than that in which 
we are. The young especially must ever be trying ex- 
periments. It is the essential property of inexperience, 
of ignorance. Perhaps not one of us ever started out 
in life without the feeling that we had the world in a 
sling. No matter how many have failed before us, we 
alone cannot fail. Men start that way in business some- 



♦ 



176 



SERMONS. 



times, and demonstrate over again what has been de- 
monstrated a million times before. Every life is as 
fresh and as much a new life as if there had never been 
a life before it. There is a longing to be free, and an 
utter ignorance that freedom is conformity to law. The 
child knows better than the parent. We all know bet- 
ter than God. We ask our portion, and God divides 
to us His living — "His life" it is literally. God gives 
us our nobler faculties, our far-reaching perceptions, our 
responsiveness to nature — this being so gifted, so capa- 
ble of grand accomplishment. This is " our portion" — 
a royal gift, the image of our Father — this scintilation 
of the divine. We do not know that it all has its own 
laws, that it demands its lawful exercise, just as the 
eye must not only use light, but use it ivisely. We do 
not know we can be wrong, without intending to be 
wrong, and that the wrong is defeat of all intention — 
just as to stare at the sun, is to put out the eye. The 
child needs the parent — man needs God. To turn aside 
from the divine restraints, to set up wilful, personal 
pleasures as an end in itself, to ignore all guidance, that 
it is, to gather all together, and go into a far country. 
What object more pitiable than the child left to itself. 
What self-destruction. Mind untutored, passion unre- 
strained, affection, talent, undeveloped. What a curse 
to itself! What a waste, what a "riotous living" what 
an unsafe life, or unsaved life ! for, if I recollect, that is 
what the word riotous means in the text, unsafe, unsaved. 
If you are wise, you can predict the destiny of almost 
any household you know. The boys, the girls, their 
tastes, their habits. You see their tendency, you have 
seen enough to know results. Where righteous re- 
straints are not sought, you see the good shrink every 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. I. 



177 



day less and less. You see the evil abound. We are 
not talking now of the guilt, of things, but merely of 
the certainty of results. The world has its attractions, 
the flesh its pleasures. We think they are as good as 
heavenly attractions and soul-pleasures, but mark, they 
are very different. They are the attractions of the 
world, the pleasures of the flesh. They have their grades. 
You can begin at the opera, and go down through the 
first class theatre, and second class, and third class, to 
the dance house and dens of low degree. Which, now, 
will you call the place for a child of God ? " There is 
no harm in them," we say. Is there any blessing in 
them ? Are they in the right direction ? I shall not 
deny that music hath its holy charms. Music, in itself, 
never did anybody any harm. It is the divine thing 
which, somehow, man has never been able to curse. 
Even in the dance house, it is the only pure thing there. 
If the opera were music, it might do very well ; but 
opera means dress, and lust, and vile thought, giving to 
many an innocent spirit, not merely its first intimations of 
evil, but so clothing it as to beget a relish for it, a relish 
which, everybody knows, ends not once nor twice, but 
many times in the dance house, and the Potter's field. 
I shall not deny that histrionic art may be, and has some- 
times been, instructive and edifying, that there are now 
and then, beings with transcendent genius, who, above 
all artifice, or mere tricks, can thrill our soul. But we 
have never seen any of them. They are not one to a 
generation. Still, they may be, and I believe are, as 
frequent as the best specimens of anything — but, is 
that the field for a divine life ? Is that the best phaze 
of this mortality ? Is it the home of mind and wis- 
dom ? Of purity and exalted virtue? The pleasure 



178 



SERMONS. 



of it, I shall not dispute, but pleasures run all the way 
down, and all the way up. You have to choose which 
field of pleasure is yours. Is that a near country to 
you ? Are you a citizen there ? You may begin with 
the paltry novel, and go down through all sorts of trash, 
but is there no prostitution of mind in it ? Are there 
no grand poems, no high philosophies, no wide-reaching 
science — all as angels, beckoning and asking to be enter- 
tained, that we, too, may be as angels ? The question 
is often asked, is there any harm in these amusements ? 
The answer must vary, according to the inquirer. To 
many, I should say, unhesitatingly, no — many persons 
are as pure there as they would be anywhere, perhaps, 
for two hours, at least, be in better company than they 
would have at home, be in better humor. The kennel 
is the proper place for a dog, and the sty the proper 
place for swine. But can it be your place ? Every- 
thing is good enough in its proper place. The question 
is not whether it is good enough for you, but whether 
you are base enough for that. Sodom was good enough 
for the Sodomites. Lot was not much better, or he 
would not have been there at all, and even if he was a 
tolerably good thing himself, he was in the wrong place, 
and no wonder it took a miracle to save him. In such 
a land, in any land of mere animalism, of idle fashion, 
of sensual indulgence, the Christian must be indeed in 
a far country. For you to go there, you must carry 
the splendors and riches of a better country. You can 
go there only to desecrate the divine portion your Father 
gave you. You were made for thought, for study, for 
high communion with divine things. In such a land, 
you must soon begin to be in want. There must soon be 
famine, death of all that is morally pure and spiritually 



THE PRODIGAL SON — No. I. 



179 



good, and wishful recollections of the home land, the 
fatherland you have left. 

What a blessed thought it is, to those of us, who 
have children, that if we can give our children the true 
culture, if we can implant within them pure thoughts 
and holy recollections, they can never forget them. 
What a thought — that wander as they may, revel as 
they will, the still small voice never dies. Train a child 
in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not 
depart from it. That promise is a tower of comfort and 
strength. It is based upon a law. I often wonder 
whether any man can wholly forget God. I think not. 
When I look at some of those citizens, naturalized in 
vice, citizens of the far country, I think they too, them- 
selves, must sometimes think of their father and their 
home. Christ does not intimate it here — but it is 
possible. 

Still, this prodigal need not go down to poverty and 
vice to waste his substance. Many a rich man has for 
his riches parted with every noble faculty. In the far 
country forgotten his lineage and his father's house, for- 
gotten the dignity and honors and walks that belong to 
a Christian. Have you never seen men in the pursuit 
of bubbles, not only forgetful of God, but forgetful that 
they are men ? You can see it every day. We some- 
times meet men that fairly stagger all our conceptions 
of manhood; men with so little perception of divine 
things, we wonder if they are men. I read a piece in 
a paper a few days ago which caused me to pause and 
ask, whether it were possible that the writer of it ever 
had a conception of manhood. You have seen men with 
all affection and manly sentiment frozen, miserly, mis- 
erable mortals, afraid of death, willing to give all their 



180 



SERMONS. 



possessions for a hope beyond the grave, who feel they 
have missed the true mark of life, that somebody is 
anxious for their shoes, that nobody really loves them, 
that they have done nothing for which anybody should 
love them, whose place will soon be filled, whose life 
will leave hardly an echo behind, over whom time will 
close like the sea over the way of a ship, mind gone, 
soul gone, life gone, men far from home, hungry and 
faint, that cannot fill themselves with the husks that 
swine eat. Have we not all seen spirits sick and 
wearied, consumed with a sense of disappointment and 
humiliation. Such is sin, only once desecrate the 
blessed Eden in which and for which God created you 
andfyou go forth, the flaming sword forbidding forever 
all return. Still do you mark the gradation and de- 
gradation here ? Do you see how the original divine 
pasture has been wasted ? Do you observe the contrast 
and interval between that grand ideal, thy first self, 
and this wretched wreck, thy second self, this, not thy- 
self, not thy Father's child, could He love thee ? Would 
we there be with the living ? Think of Him. He needs 
us not. He hath a home and other sons. How we 
have disgraced Him, ground our nobility into the dirt, 
and like a profligate prince, dishonored royalty itself. 
Is there any hope ? 

Do you observe then, that though our Father looks 
upon us in our sins, as unfortunate, rather than faulty, 
though He is not angry, yet our misfortune is real, our 
woe is not the less? Do you see though God has not 
created it, and will not add anything to it, there is 
enough of it already ? Can you go on and make it 
more ? Do you see what alienation from God means ? 
Suppose you become like one of those citizens of the 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. I. 



181 



far country, without any father, without any God, re- 
morseless, soulless, dead, fit to deal in crime. Is there 
no punishment in that ? Have you lost nothing ? Do 
you see you have lost your soul ; and do you see, when 
I tell you God will not punish you, that is not telling 
you that you will not be punished. Think, should your 
mother be taken from you, of never seeing her again. 
Think of the little sister that went the other day, pure, 
spotless, never see her again. Never. But suppose when 
they are clothed in transcendent excellence, you are 
clothed in transcendent soul-poverty and wretchedness 
and there is a great gulf between you. Think of never 
seeing God, of an infinite gulf between you. Do you 
see what that gulf is, the loss in you of the portion, the 
divine portion your father gave you ? But, you say 
God will not eternally punish ; no, God will not pun- 
ish at all. But do you see the sinking that is there, 
first of all, the neglect to love, then the alienation, then 
the far country, then the want, then the hiring out to 
the citizen, then suppose you were a citizen, should go 
so far as to be truly a citizen, to feel satisfied there, not 
to know you are lost, then you see there is no hope. 
Do you see no eternity beating there? Well, you are 
not there. If you have not left your Father's house, let 
me entreat you .not to leave it. He is a good Father. 
With him are joys forevermore. If you have left, if 
you have any recollections of your home, any longings 
to return, pause, resolve to return. Stay not, nor rest, 
till once more in your Father's arms, the sobs of repent- 
ance are mingled with the affectionate greetings of your 
Father's forgiveness. 



182 



SERMONS. 



THE PRODIGAL SON.— No. II. 

Lukr 15 : 15-19. — And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that 
country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain 
have filled his belly with the husks which the swine did eat, and no man 
gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired ser- 
vants of my father have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hun- 
ger ! I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have 
sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants. 

This is the continuation of the parable of the Prodi- 
gal Son, upon another part of which we were meditating 
last Sunday night. We traced the wandering sinner 
through the alienation from his father and his home, his 
realization of the portion his father gave him, in his 
sense of independence taking his journey into a far 
country, there devoting the wealth of an angel to the 
pursuits of sin. We traced him through the wasting 
of his heavenly portion, through the dearth of every- 
thing there that could respond to his better being, down 
to the sense of want that overtook him. I asked you 
to mark the gradation, or ^gradation that was here, 
the gradual but sure sinking, lapsing, gliding downward. 
That is what spiritual death means, the wasting away 
of life, falling, the decay of noble faculty, of high-born 
aspirations, the passing from a higher to a baser being. 

But there was a deeper lapse than that, " He went 
and joined himself to a citizen of that country." What 
is meant by that? You recollect in dwelling last Sun- 
day night upon the thought of the " riotous living," I 
spoke of spheres of worldliness, within which for any 



THE PRODIGAL SON-No. II. 



183 



gifted or pure being to be, was simply a prostitution of 
all gifts and of all higher being. Yet there is a land 
within which myriads of this human race dwell. You 
look out upon life, dissect society, the community, and 
you find classes, degrees of ungodliness, ranging all the 
way from what is supposed to be refined worldliness, 
down through hypocrisy, through all sorts of license, 
through immorality, through vice, to crime, to all that 
is ignorant, vulgar, sensuous, utterly and to all appearance 
hopelessly abandoned. There you have one inclined 
plane, crowded, not with kinds, only with degrees. You 
find there, not so much human nature, as the perver- 
sion of human nature, the neglect or abuse of divine 
faculties, the " portion" of goods originally given utterly 
squandered, the patrimony all gone, the family records 
lost, the family spirit dead, till they seem, indeed to be 
not the children of God. Here you have the descend- 
ants of prodigal beings who wandered here and never 
returned, beings born here, educated here, i. e., beings 
who never knew their origin, not that they were born 
in poverty, in ignorance, in vice, what they are in they 
do not know to be ignorance, poverty, and vice. 

You must have observed what a naturalness there is 
sometimes to such people. There seems to break in 
upon them no echo from upper worlds. The moral 
sense, if not dead, is dormant. Though the Holy Ghost 
is there, there is little by which the Holy Ghost can 
work. To you, how unnatural it seems, that any being 
could live so forgetful of a better being, so unregardful 
of God, of all divine things, and it is unnatural. Take 
it, in what is its least repulsive phase, in what is very 
often an attractive phase. Take it in circles where 
wealth abounds, where the pomps and vanities of life 



184 



SERMONS. 



flourish, where social etiquette, abandonment to pleasure, 
the pursuit of what others think are the supreme good. 
Mark the shallowness there, the frivolous vanity, the 
shining veneering, the absence of solidity — of all indica- 
tion that the strong and true things which constitute 
humanity, were ever there. There is not unfrequently a 
sparkling brilliancy, sometimes a glimpse of true beauty. 
But try to present there a thought. What a waste of 
labor ! How the toil reacts. That being ranges not within 
the limits of thought, and I do not mean simply religious 
thought, but solid thought of any sort. The whole of 
that being is sensuous. It has not penetrated into 
immortality. It is animalism, painted, draped, and 
decorated. It creates and sustains the froth of life. 
It is for them, that all which panders to that kind of 
being, exists. It comes so natural to them, and it 
appeals so forcible to unculture, to inexperience, to 
youth, and all beings in which the higher nature has 
been reached, that many of us suppose that to be hu- 
man nature. 

We take that so much for granted, that instead of 
endeavoring to make it impossible by culture, we turn 
to abusing it. We guard people against it, without cul- 
tivating those faculties, which would render all guard- 
ing unnecessary ; like an unskillful pilot, we watch the 
wrecks, when we ought to know and follow the channel. 

Then, from here, go down, through the multiplied 
manifestations of the same thing. There are men who 
live only to be able to live in that kind 'of life, men who 
devote all the soul power of which they are conscious to 
be able to maintain appearances. Hence we get men 
in trade with great faculties of combination, of penetra- 
tion, of execution, who oil the wheels of commerce and 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. II. 



185 



keep trade in motion, men who never think, nor care, 
for any interests beyond their own, men like the big 
pikes in a pond, that eat up not only all the little fish, 
but even the smaller pikes, men that create monopolies, 
which in their turn create and stimulate all selfishness 
and wrong, men who have too many great things to do, 
to think of religion, of humanity, of philanthropy, of 
right, of God, men who often have mind-culture, but 
not moral culture, men who have only one-half their be- 
ing developed, and that feebly. Here we get to high- 
born faculties, in all office, perverted to petty and selfish 
ends, in every department of life, talent devoted not to 
the highest and universal good, to the true and the right, 
but to the expedient, the near and local and temporary, 
the form and not the substance, men who betray trusts 
and sacred interests — men, to be like whom, other men 
commit crimes. Then you go down to where the tinsel 
begins to peal off, to where the repulsive begins to ap- 
pear, but observe, repulsive not always to those who are 
there. If you have been long in a vitiated atmosphere, 
you are not conscious of its exhaustion as the man who 
steps in from the pure air outside. They are used to it. 
They are indifferent. Here the misunderstanding begins 
to be intensified, because the ignorance is more palpable. 
They neither covet, nor could they enjoy your refine- 
ment. They think people of culture and religion are 
their enemies. That arises from the undefined conscious- 
ness that they are at enmity with all social good. You 
get down now to where society for its protection begins 
to issue licenses, to where the police begin to be needful. 
You get down now to those vocations that are illustra- 
ted by saloons, by gambling dens, by all infamy. You 
get down to where courts and jails are demanded. 



186 



SERMONS. 



Within the limits of our cities, even you get to a terri- 
tory here that is thickly settled. 

The point I wish you to observe is, the naturalness 
that is there, the fact that men and women are citizens 
of that country. You perceive it is not what God made 
them for. It is by leaving out all that distinguishes 
them from the beast. It is the enthronement of all that 
is merely animal. When we look upon the world, and 
see so many hard fates and cruel destinies, we think 
God is full of wrath, and wonder how a God of love 
could create souls for such woe. But that is not what 
God has done, so much as what God has been trying to 
prevent. When you look only sometimes, and see fami- 
lies broken up, all unlove and unrest there, it is because 
they have lived in their lower nature, and forgotten 
God. It was against this God provided such endless 
means, such an economy of reason, and moral sense — 
even this Gospel itself. That is our slavery. We have 
spent our divine life. We have joined ourselves to a 
citizen of a country that is ruled by the devil, the 
crudest of all masters. He makes fair promises, but 
He sends us to feed swine. That is all the stock he 
has. He deals in animalism. Its food is not soul food. 
No spirit can feed upon its husks. Souls have tried it, 
but all have failed. We sometimes call it human nature, 
but the truth is, it is human unnature. Mark the force of 
the swine in the text. You know the hog is the illus- 
tration, the epitome of all that is mean and loathsome 
in animal being. Man, having parted with his divine 
portion, sinks to the very dregs of animal being. To 
part with your birthright, is to sell yourself to one of 
these citizens, is possibly, to become one of these citi- 
zens, to become naturalized there, to be ruled by lust 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. II. 



187 



and passion, to wear a yoke more galling than death. 
You see people trying to become naturalized there every 
day — young people imitating the frivolous and profane, 
people sometimes supremely ridiculous, because you can 
see it is not natural. Christian society is only immo- 
lation of those who are of the earth, earthy. Many of 
the fashions and customs of life are imported from 
foreign and heathen circles. One of the deplorable facts 
of to-day is, that there exists little of what may be strictly 
called Christian society, anything that pervades life as 
such. The world has more power, in certain directions, 
over the Church, than the Church over the world. 
Much of the dress and extravagance, in which we 
indulge, is very unnatural. It is the testimony of the 
absence of heart power, and soul power, and brain 
power. It creates and substantiates the impression, 
the suspicion, that religion is not where it claims to be. 
Hence the thinness of our churches. Hence the impo- 
tency of church machinery. Hence the want of success 
in reaching the cancer spots of society. Hence it is, 
that wise laws are not made, and those that are made 
fail to be executed. Hence so much that is done is 
unwise. 

While we are here, let us look at an important thought. 
From what has been said, we may infer that there are 
all degrees of appreciation for divine things, even down to 
that degree of which it may be said there can hardly be 
any appreciation at all — down to that degree which 
justified the Master in saying to His disciples, " Cast 
not your pearls before swine." In forgetfulness of this, 
there is absence of much wise action on our part relative 
to the masses, and much of Christian effort ivhich is toast- 
ed, because it is univise, well meant ; but having in it 



188 



SERMONS. 



more zeal than knowledge. We aim too often at a 
higher good, forgetful that if we would do any good at all, 
we must first accomplish that of a lower degree. The Sa- 
viour Himself always acted upon this plan. Whenever 
men and women presented themselves for His aid, He 
invariably imparted it up to the degree in which they first 
asked for it — to my mind, one of the most instructive 
facts in the Bible. When the ten lepers came to Him, 
He said nothing to them about sin ; He never said any- 
thing to any of them about their sin ; He never makes 
them promise to come back and follow Him ; He always 
takes for granted the better nature in them ; He as- 
sumes that that nature must work, if it work at all, by 
laws of its own. Yes, "go and show yourselves to 
the priests," "go and wash in the pool of Siloam," 
go and get clean by all means up to the best you 
covet. When you are there, the better degree will 
bring you to a degree still better. The blind boy 
will come back and worship. One out 'of the ten 
lepers will come back for a higher blessing. Now, we 
go down into lanes and alleys, into rat-pits and dog- 
kennels, and read the Bible and hold prayer meetings, 
and all that may be right enough, but it is not all that 
ought to be done. Now, is it the best that could be done. 
How hopeless it is, experience tells us. We scatter the 
rats and the dogs to other quarters ; we make their 
former locality available for better business. The Five 
Points Mission House is a grand institution, perhaps 
as grand as any in New York. It aims at education. 
But I contend that a Christian people should not be 
felt merely in isolated and sporadic endeavors. If 
we could unite all our charities and stand together as 
Christian people we should not only be more effective, 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. II. 



189 



but more charitable. Why are our laws so pozuerless ? 
or ivhy have we so few really salutary laws ? Why is ig- 
norance increasing npon us and pauperism increasing 
upon us ? These are questions which are alarming 
already, and which as a people we must before long se- 
riously contemplate. I think as Christian people and 
as Churches we ought to be more interested and more 
active in all the questions of social science. Many so- 
cial evils are, I think, because Christian people are not 
making themselves felt as they ought to be felt. We 
feel our duty is discharged when we have paid our tax- 
es and that is what makes it so hard to pay them. We 
have no interest in that toward which they are supposed 
to be paid. We never look after the money to see 
whether we have any equivalent in actual benefit re- 
turned. When we take up a principle we dabble with 
it, like a blind chemist trying experiments. It is not 
for our brother and sister we care, not for the multi- 
tudes, not for a better condition of society. We have 
no soul invested. In my judgment we never can reach the 
religious sensibilities of the multitudes, till we have first 
reached the minds and morals. We may reach here 
and there an individual case, but we must do as the 
Saviour, have compassion upon the multitudes. It is 
very true our soul is worth all the money we spend in 
converting it, but if wisely directed, if Christians, in- 
stead of quarreling over abstract theories, and acting in 
sectarian and solitary, and not unfrequently, on very 
slender bases, could unite all energy and realize that, 
after all, our interests are common and our work too a 
common one, I think we could send a tide of life, 
through our laws, through our police agencies, through 
our philanthropic institutions, and withal derive a high 



190 



SERMONS. 



life ourselves, quicken the divine faculties within us, 
and have not only more religion to impart, but richer 
appreciation to which to impart it. We should all reach 
proportionally a higher story of our being. The thought 
of the condition of society at its lower extremities 
is breaking the hearts of many good men, but the 
thought which paralyzes their energies is, the impossi- 
bility of weaning Christians from their unprofitable quar- 
rels, and uniting them in wise, strong and concerted ac- 
tivity. The misfortune is, we look out upon the world 
not with the anxiety of him who feels he is his brother's 
keeper, not with warm solicitude for our Father's hon- 
or and interest, but as " hired servants" with the selfish 
narrowness of our little divisions. We have our schemes, 
our respectability, our ways, whatever they may be, to 
secure, and beyond that nothing. All, at last seek their 
own and not the things of Jesus Christ. 

You know what a household becomes left to servants, 
and you see what God's household must be, left to 
" hired servants" with enough and to spare, with means 
of grace and privileges and blessings beyond, not their 
needs, but their craving, with vastly more than they 
themselves appreciate. There is great force in this 
thought that the Master puts into the mouth of this 
awakened prodigal, "How many hired servants /" How 
many souls think that way when they awake and think 
of us. Roused by bitter experience, by dark provi- 
dence, by, to him, mysterious extremity, he reaches 
depths of being, longings beyond utterance. He misun- 
derstands his father. He does not see the glory of a 
sonship. His first thought is of us, the hired servants. 
And verily, we have enough and to spare. When I 
look out upon the manifold gifts of Christians, when I 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. II. 



191 



see the time they have at their disposal, the education 
they have received, to a great extent unemployed, lend- 
ing light, transcendently beautiful to be sure, but only 
to very limited circles, not employed as a talent lent of 
God, not invested in the well being of those who have 
no helper, when I contrast this with the myriads who 
would be glad of the crumbs of our superfluity, I think 
they have a right to expect more of us, and we owe it 
to God, to ourselves and our neighbor, to be more dili- 
gent and devoted in the work our hand ought to find 
to do. We ought not to be idling, "hired" servants. 

But let me remark again this thought, that there are 
all degrees of appreciation for divine things, has its 
bearing upon this part of the work of the Church or the 
Christian, called " preaching the Gospel." Some men 
think that to preach the Gospel, we must always, in 
every sermon, lay out the whole Christian scheme, so 
that if, for the first time in his life, a straggler happen 
in, he may hear the whole Gospel. That would do 
very well, if it were not that, to my mind, that whole 
Gospel generally leaves the Gospel out. To me, most 
of the preaching, since I was eighteen years of age, has 
been telling us what sinners we are, not what a Father 
God is. It has been theology r , and not Gospel. It has run 
upon a certain class of texts, leaving about ninety-nine 
one-hundredths of the Bible unopened, and unknown, 
and a large portion of it is, to great multitudes of us, 
still unopened and unknown. If the preaching of our 
times is changing at all, it is in this, that it is bringing 
some of those other texts to our minds and hearts. 
When we preach the Gospel, we have to assume some 
knowledge in our hearers. I assume, in my preaching, 
that we all know we are sinners. If we know not that, 



192 



SERMONS. 



the case is hopeless, after all the preaching that has 
been done. I take for granted we are all prodigals — or 
even if there are some of us, those elder brothers, that 
have always been at home — then, even to us, our Father 
would speak. I take for granted that sin is the worst 
yoke man ever had upon his neck ; how it galls, none 
know so well as those on whose neck it has rested. 
Why should I scrape the sore, and pour vinegar upon 
the raw and festering spot. I think that is where we 
who preach the Gospel err, in not knowing how raw 
it is, in not knowing that men feel it, that they do not 
want it to be so — in not knowing that it came there in 
their ignorance, in some dark day, under some crushing 
temptation — that they were born in a far country ; that 
cruel, mysterious providencies left them without instruc- 
tion, without culture, without those restraints, which 
would have made them angels. Stranded there, without 
a messenger from home, or a guide to lead them back. 
We have not sympathy enough, and so do not know that 
the one thing we want, is an oil for the wound, a balm 
that can heal — -just this message of Christ — "Neither 
do I condemn thee." " I will; be thou clean." Though 
thou art far off, thy Father is watching and longing — 
oh ! the days and the nights of agony I have spent 
over what I know already, my sins, the tears I have 
shed over the same message, tears of joy, tears of 
streaming peace, this prodigal son. Oh! when I had 
come to myself, and then wanted God, it was here I had 
found Him, my Father. It was this that convinced me 
that Christ was my Saviour, because He convinced me 
God was love, that was "good news," and when I came 
to see His own bleeding side, His cross, and the grave, 
when I came to see how my wicked, prodigal heart, 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. II. 



193 



brought Him there, my sins burned like fire within me, 
and if it could have done any good I could have crushed 
myself; but cured, and clothed in my right mind, and at 
rest, in the thought that, while only fit to be crushed, 
God was the only being in the universe who would not 
crush me, then I felt it was worth while to live, and 
give soul and body to the service of God, in the service 
of my fellow man, in telling them that every day they 
staid away from God, they wronged their own soul, in 
telling my fellow men God loved them, for that could 
make them repent ; in showing them what was in Christ, 
for that would make them ashamed of themselves — -just 
as I do this day with my little children ; when they 
transgress I do not tell them how mean they are, but I 
tell them of something pure and noble, and sweet and 
holy, and it makes them self-convicted, but hopefully 
and sweetly penitent, and, my dear hearer, in my judg- 
ment, if the love of Jesus, if a sense of the love of 
God, do not break your heart, do not make you sen- 
sible of your ingratitude and sin, then nothing upon 
earth can do it. No, I do not think the elder brother 
knows his Father the best, or loves his prodigal brother 
the best — or even if he knows it better than I, I think 
Jesus knows it better than any, and He holds up every- 
where, and all the time, only God's pardoning love. 
His own life and death are illustrations of that love, and 
to see that, I think, is to be led to repentance, to abhor 
ourselves, and cling to God, to be born again, to put on 
Christ, to renew our mind ; as the Master so sublimely 
expresses it here, " to come to ourselves." When a man 
gets there, he is a converted man. He is the best kind 
of a converted man. He may think he wants to be a 
hired servant, but God will not let him be. He shall 



194 



SERMONS. 



be a son. He shall not be looking downward to see 
what the least requisite for his Father's Kingdom is, 
but always upward, how near to, and how worthy 
of that Father he can become. 

" When he came to himself," what a world of mean- 
ing there is in that ! What a body of theology is there ! 
Do you see this palsied, leprous, sin-stricken mortality, 
is not thyself? I have known a youth leave his father's 
house, his boyhood home, and in the mazes of a large 
city disappear. He went out with all the benediction 
a parental heart could bestow. He had been reared 
tenderly, perhaps what we might call indulgently, the 
pride and hope of a large family circle. After long, 
long years, in which evil association, dire temptation, 
vice in all degrees had done their worst, on a dark, cold, 
wintry night, that father's door-bell has wrung. Short- 
ly after, an altercation is heard with the servants in the 
hall- -that father goes out and sees a tattered, trembling, 
driveling form, asking for the father's forgiveness before 
he died. Was this his son? Was this the being in 
whom so many hearts had made so large a venture ? 
Was this he whose form was so erect, whose heart was 
so noble, whose soul was so pure, whose life was laden 
with promise ? No — it was the wreck that was left of 
him. His crime had been that he had changed into an- 
other being. He had cheated himself, and cheated his 
father, and sinned against God. In his case, he never 
came to himself; it was too late to save him. Shall I 
say he never came to himself? Perhaps, in that dark 
night it was himself that struggled back into himself. 
In coming in repentance to his earthly father, he found 
forgiveness and peace with God. But if he did not, it was 
not because God could not forgive him. No, that Father- 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. II. 195 

heart was rich in mercy if he could only know it. I 
say what a body of theology is in this thought — does 
God's spirit ever leave us ? What is it brings us to 
ourselves ? What is it brings that Spirit there ? Oh, 
the death and sacrifice of Christ ! Oh, the gift above 
all gifts, God to dwell in earnest love even with those 
who do not love Him. Through that do you see God 
abroad everywhere, pleading, working through every 
faculty of manhood, quickening the memory, through 
the law of association bringing back the past, applying 
all providence, as links of iron, to hold us to truth, to 
goodness, and to God ? That is what we forget, that 
spirit of God there, that He works, that it is His office 
to apply the things of Jesus, and that all those things 
are love. Yes ; my friend, when you are where you 
know you ought not to be, when providences, dark and 
mysterious, quicken your thoughts, and send them back 
over the past, or out over the future, what is it all but 
God's spirit calling you to repentance. " When he came 
to himself," He was hungry, but against whom had he 
sinned ? Against his father. Who ought to be angry ? 
According to all our notions, that father. Who ought 
to be his best friend ? According to Christ, that Father. 
Who did he most of all need ? that Father ? Oh ! my 
hearers, God is the one Being that serves us all, the 
one Being we cannot get along without, the one Being 
we may be sure will never fail us. He is the one Be- 
ing against whom we have sinned, but He is the one 
Being who is not angry, who does not hate. That is 
the curse of sin, that is when the devil is a liar. He 
steps in between us and God and says we # cannot return. 
This is what faith is, this is the one work for us to do, 
to believe Jesus, to believe in Jesus, to accept His invita- 



196 



SERMONS. 



tion, to resolve to return. Do you see there the one 
thought, " you must come to yourself." You must ac- 
cept the overtures of the Spirit. You must repent and 
say : " I will arise and go to my Father." Make up your 
story, — " Father I have sinned against heaven and be- 
fore thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, 
make me as one of thy hired servants." But why so 
long a story ? You shall not need it, God knows it al- 
ready better than you can tell Him — yes ; even with all 
you would tell Him, you do not know how much you 
have sinned. You do not know how unworthy you are. 
As the years go by, and you see your Father's love and 
your Father's purity and understand Him, you w T ill the 
better understand what you have been, and while every 
day will only refine the soul within you, every day will 
the more deeply humble you. In your humility will be 
exaltation. Now you ask, " make me one of thy hired 
servants." Your Father will not let you ask that ? By 
and by you would not ask it yourself. There will come 
a hungering and thirsting beyond what you now know, 
and that hungering and thirsting will be, in deed and 
in truth, a son of the Highest. May the Spirit of all 
truth, quicken all our souls, and send us out with one 
constant longing, to come nearer to Our Father who is 
in heaven, to be more like that One, elder brother, who 
gave Himself that we might live — the Saviour, Jesus 
Christ. 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. III. 



197 



THE PRODIGAL SON. — No. III. 

Luke 15 : 20, 24. — And he arose and came to his Father. But when he 
was yet a great way off, his Father saw him, and had compassion, and ran 
and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I 
have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be 
called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best 
robe and put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. 
And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. 
For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. 
And they began to be merry. 

You readily recognize this as part of the record of 
the Prodigal Sou. He is first represented in his aliena- 
tion from his Father and his home. Then, in conse- 
quence, sinking to great want and extreme degradation. 
Then we see him at last meditating upon his evil career 
and dark condition, thinking of home, and resolving to 
return. In this text we see him carrying his resolution 
into effect. " He arose and came to his Father." We 
reach the very climax and pith of the parable. He 
comes, not to an angry father, a father to be appeased, 
but to a father anxiously watching, more glad to wel- 
come the sinner, than the sinner is to return. This is 
the lesson of the parable, the love of a heavenly Father 
for his sinful and erring sons. 

Possibly an error we have made in reading this para- 
ble, has been to consider it a mere story, illustrative of 
God's general love, but because a story, filled in with 
parts having no immediate parallels in divine facts. If 
such has been our conception, it has been a miscon- 



198 



SERMONS. 



ception. Of all the beings that ever walked our earth, 
none spake like the Son of Man. He was wonderful, 
in thought, in word, in deed, uttering no idle word, and 
in any record leaving no necessary word unsaid. If 
this parable had been uttered by any but Christ, we 
should have had many faults to find with it. We 
should have thought it not sufficiently explicit. We 
should have loaded it with elaborate technicalities, till 
its truth, its beauty and its force had all disappeared in 
one mist of complication and uncertainty. " He arose 
and came to his Father" But before that, " he came to 
himself." Did he do that in his own strength, by his 
own unaided volition ? It would appear so, from all 
that is contained in the record itself. Persons who do 
not believe in all our Scriptures, hut- persons of wide 
observation, seeing, in all climes and ages, men truly 
turning to God, longing after God, say, the natural man 
turns to God and longs for Him. But, while it is true 
men in all climes and ages do turn to God and long for 
Him, it is still man under grace that does it. This 
human race has never been under more than one dispen- 
sation. That has been a dispensation of love, of mercy, 
God through Christ reconciling the world to Himself, 
out of that love wherewith God "so loved it as to give 
His only begotton Son." It is convenient for us to talk 
of three dispensations, but all these have been but 
phases or developments, successive unfoldings of the 
one universal dispensation. Men have been known to 
talk of the uncovenanted mercies of God. There are 
no such things as uncovenanted mercies — mercy is one 
and forever, and all the mercies of God are covenanted 
in Christ. The Abrahamic covenant was only a type 
or shadow. . The Christian covenant is all there ever 



THE PRODIGAL SON — No. III. 



199 



was, or ever can be, and that embraces a race and a 
world. The covenant mercy in Christ, as much envelops 
the earth as the atmosphere. It applies to every man 
as much as electricity or gravity, or sunlight, or space. 
Christ's atonement took away the sins of a world. It 
made all men brethren, but not only so — the love of 
God contemplated the infusion of life within us as much 
as the removal of punishment from us. Even more. 
There is salvation as well as redemption. The atone- 
ment, therefore, procured the Holy Ghost, the Lord and 
giver of life, to dwell with man, to teach him the true 
and the right, to urge him toward its attainment, and 
is the source of all the right, and true, and good, in the 
world, find it where you will. I do not think the spirit 
of God ever leaves any man upon earth. That spirit 
appeals to us through every providence that overtakes 
us, through every channel of our being, from the worlds 
that swim in space to the flowers that bloom by the 
wayside, from the winds that sigh through the trees to 
the funeral train that winds through the streets. Be- 
cause it was a fixed fact, this redemption and this gift 
of the Holy Ghost — fact that our action or inaction 
cannot change, because it was universal, always acting, 
there was no need that Christ should be ever telling 
it. He only demanded and taught, as God has in all 
ages demanded and taught, as we do to-day demand 
and teach, an action in us commensurate with and 
directly responsive to the facts. 

In the Bible we are not told on every page that the 
Holy Ghost is there to give it life, to give us vision to 
receive it. In our sermons we are not always telling 
that the Holy Ghost is present to apply the truth. We 
know that, we feel that. If the Holy Ghost were not 



200 



SERMONS. 



present we could not perceive that anything is truth, 
there could not be any truth to apply. When on some 
delicious day you stand and gaze on an exquisite land- 
scape, what is it you see ? The tree, the valley, the hill, 
the shadow, the marvellous combination of beauty. But 
does that make the landscape ? What if the sun were 
below the horizon ; where would the landscape then be ? 
Could your unaided eye create it ? Not at all. The one 
agent and producer of the whole, is the one thing silent, 
unobtrusive. Your eye sees, because it uses the light. 
The soul sees when it uses the Spirit of God. Through 
Christ they are made for each other, and the Holy 
Ghost is with the soul without saying anything of Him- 
self, just as the sunlight is with the eye without saying 
anything of itself. 

" He arose and came to his father." God asks that of 
us all because we are all under grace, because every 
man has the Holy Ghost there to help him, because 
every man is under the one covenant God made with 
the race in Christ. Man now is not man after the first 
Adam, dead and helpless, but man redeemed in the 
second Adam, man like Adam before his fall, with ger- 
minal life, with perception of and capacityfor life. Man 
better off than the first Adam, because he has been 
bitten by transgression, like the prodigal, and knows the 
deadliness of the serpent's bite, and can look to that 
Redeemer who was lifted up, even as Moses lifted the 
serpent in the wilderness, if he only will. This is why 
God pleads with us in the Bible as He does, to repent 
and turn to Him, why he finds fault with us when we 
do not repent, why there can be no forgiveness for that 
because it is the sin against the Holy Ghost. 

" He arose and came to his father." That is what 



THE PRODIGAL SON — No. III. 



201 



God wants every sinner to do. We can come pleading 
the atonement, pleading all the promises therein made. 
We can come to a Father reconciled. This is the very 
Gospel itself to tell us of the reconciliation and urge us 
to come. But we can only come in repentance as this 
Prodigal did, and as he furnishes us a clear illustration 
of what repentance is, a change of mind. You see him 
in his unrest and alienation, striving for an impossibility, 
a happiness in his animal nature, a life without God, a 
being with all that is immortal stricken out of him, a 
being resisting the Holy Ghost. You see then the one 
common experiment of ungodliness, the deadly attempt 
at impossibility to live without God. If man could live 
without God and be happy without God, if in the nature 
of things you could he safe in opposition to all higher 
being, if your good could be accomplished outside of 
God's plan, none would rejoice in it more than God. But 
it is the impossibility of the thing, the madness of try- 
ing it, that grieves God. You must perceive that, you 
must see what a folly you have committed, what an in- 
grate you have been, what a guilt you have incurred. 
This is the beginning of repentance. You see the Prodi- 
gal conscious of his mistake, guilty, not so much before 
God, as in his own consciousness, before the tribunal of 
his own soul, self-accused, self-condemned. This is the 
work of the Holy Ghost, conviction, marvellous and mys- 
terious work. It makes the soul its own judge. This 
makes him exclaim, " I am no more worthy to be called 
thy son." He sees it, his own meanness. He knows he 
has forfeited all his right and title. He must accept all 
now as a gift. When he first went out in his pride he 
claimed his portion. His poor silly heart has made him 
think he was strong and rich in his own right. He sees 



202 



SERMONS. 



now all is of grace. He must accept. St. Paul says, 
" the gift of God is eternal life, and this life is in His 
Son," and verily so it is. It is not ours by birth, or by 
purchase, or by works, but out of the riches of divine 
grace. Truly, too, it is ours now by the best of all 
rights, for what a father gives ennobles and makes us 
truly rich, rich in gratitude and affection and in all en- 
dearment. This is repentance, not only the sight of 
the wrong and evil, and sensual and wicked, for if we 
see only that it is the dark side, that which makes reli- 
gion a fear, but repentance is vision of the true, and 
right, and divine, that which makes the service of God 
perfect freedom, but which makes us see at the same 
time how far away we are from a true service. You 
perceive only a nature quickened can attain it. Hence a 
mystery is solved, the purer we grow, the unworthier 
we seem. The more truly rich we are, the more we 
ascribe to God. Thus, true exaltation truly humbles, 
and true humility truly exalts. The archangel while 
highest and grandest is still humblest and simplest. 
Hence, too, we get to a true idea of God, while He is 
the absolutely supreme. He is the absolutely accessable, 
while the absolute Ruler, at the same time the universal 
server — while infinitely exalted, still responsive even to 
a child. Infinite love at last embracing all being. 

" But when he was yet a great way off, his father 
saw him and had compassion." That expression in it- 
self were enough to tell us of God's yearning to get us 
all back to Himself. This were enough in itself to dis- 
sipate all thought of God's anger, of a Father in wrath. 
That man should have that notion of God that He is 
angry, is perfectly natural. If your child should wan- 
der out in disobedience and transgression ; should it 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. III. 



203 



commit some flagrant misdeed ; its first thought would 
be of your displeasure. It would keep away from you. 
But to whom else should that child instantly go ? Who 
could be a better friend to it than you ? And, if you 
were a true parent, who could desire it to do just that 
very thing more than you ? What a relief it would be to 
those of us who have children, if we could only feel that 
in all their errings they would come instantly to us ! 
Who could pity them so much ? Who could guide and 
counsel them so well ? Oh, what a thought it is, that 
God is a Father ! His justice satisfied ! His anger all 
removed ! What a Gospel is in those words ! — he saw 
him when he was a long way off, and ran and fell on 
his neck. Oh ! how far did Jesus come, away from 
that glory above, past cherubim and seraphim, past an- 
gel and spirits of the just, down to us, tattered and trem- 
bling sinners, to tell us that — God, 66 our Father!" How 
He exhausted language and resources in teaching us. 
When he would teach us to pray, while he bids us shut 
ourselves by ourselves, He does not say, " my Father," 
or, " Lord God of Israel," or, " thou that dwellest 
in Zion ;" nay — but still " our Father," not unwilling to 
hear, but more ready to hear than we are to pray, watch- 
ing, anxious, running r , in a transport of joy, falling on 
our neck and kissing us. No wonder the Saviour la- 
bored so hard to impress it. Good news as it is, men 
are slow of heart to believe it. When Adam sinned, he 
ran away from God and hid himself — the very natural 
thing, but the very worst thing he could have done. 
Notwithstanding that earnest, pleading Saviour there, 
we even now come tremblingly, " perfect love " not yet 
having " cast out " all " fear." Why can we not be- 
lieve ? There is no reproach, no accusation, no upbraid- 



204 



SERMONS. 



ing. no reaping up. What can so touch the heart, and 
break the heart, as love and kindness we know we do 
not deserve ? Would it not be strange indeed, if Jesus, 
being lifted up, should not draw all men to Him ? The 
Holy Ghost works through love. Not only so. What 
can so break the heart as kindness, which, having been 
rejected and despised, now wells up out of its own na- 
tive fountains and overflows in forgiveness and blessing ? 

No wonder the prodigal does not finish his story. 
He does not say now, " make me as one of thy hired 
servants." His father's love chokes him. That would 
be unworthy that father's child — to ask it. He must 
be nobler and higher than that. At first he would come 
back and work for something. But oh, how little he 
could work for ! It would not touch the riches of such 
a father. Oh ! my hearer, if God gave us only what 
we could work for, we should be poor indeed. But you 
see, God is so truly God, His Spirit teaches us to be 
sons. We must share the riches of that Father. We 
must be like Him, holy as He is holy, perfect as He is 
perfect. All that the Father hath is ours. All that 
we can receive, all that we can be, and the more we 
can receive, and the more we can be — so much nearer 
and dearer to Him. No more now about any wages, 
and yet every day finding relief in service. Every 
day doing more, and yet every day feeling how much 
more God hath done for us. Every day closer to God, 
and higher up in Christ, but every day more and more 
dependent. 

Now, too, once there in this higher and truer service, 
how all things minister to us. " The Father said to 
His servants." Everywhere in the economy of God, 
every instrumentality ministers to the redeemed. This 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. III. 



205 



is the purpose of all things. Earth was made for man. 
As we grow in truth, in wisdom, and become more truly 
sons of God, how many more things there are in nature 
and in God's word, than we supposed was there ; 
and how much God has for us which we are not yet 
able to receive — oh ! the ministering agencies we might 
command, if we were only worthy ! This life of God 
is not merely turning from sin, it is being clothed upon 
with the fullness of God, it is being lifted up in true 
glory. " Bring forth the best robe and put it on him," 
says the father. God's purposes are to make us sons 
indeed. As we have been clothed in brutishness, He 
would have us now meet and fit for the society of saints 
in light. Oh ! to think of the beings there, exalted, 
transcendent, pure, what a service is theirs — so far 
above us, how can we enjoy them, how shall they enjoy 
us ? He would have us with a robe of acceptableness, 
that which shall make us not strangers in the courts 
above. That robe for every soul is Christ. Observe, 
at first an imputed righteousness, in progress of eternal 
cycles to be an acquired righteousness. As being unfolds, 
it is to be Christ in us. All that was in Christ repro- 
duced, all the virtues, all the graces, the majesty and 
power of the divine life, all toward which Christ so 
earnestly exhorts us, and unless we are putting on that 
higher life, we are still lost ; churches and creeds count 
for nothing. " If ye love them that love you etc., " be 
ye perfect as your Father," etc.; you see the need of this, 
when you come to consider that grumbling elder brother. 
How far away he was from his father. What a gulf 
between them, though he had never been a prodigal. 
Unless we understand this, we shall misunderstand much 
of the Scripture. We are to be clothed upon, not working 



206 



SERMONS. 



for salvation, but working out salvation, putting on salva- 
tion. That is salvation, to be what Christ was. That is 
sanctification, to be putting on that. This is what so 
many of those Scriptures mean, especially St. Paul. 
Take such a passage as this from the Ephesians : " For 
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and 
earth is named, that He would grant you according to 
the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might 
by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in 
your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded 
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the 
breadth and length and depth and hight, and to know the 
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might 
be filled with all the fullness of God." Or, take such a 
passage as this, which expresses, as it were, the whole 
object of redemption, of the Church, and of religion : 
" And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and 
some evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers, for the 
perfecting of the saints, for the building up of the body 
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and 
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect manhood, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." 
What a robe is that ? What a sonship is there ? It is to 
be from the crown of the head to the soul of the foot, a 
whole nature absolutely reclothed. He is to walk in a 
being adorned, glorified — not only bring the best robe 
and put shoes on his feet, but put a ring on his hand. 
No longer a nature poverty stricken, but a nature en- 
riched and adorned, with a riches that can satisfy, a 
soul feasting on " fat things," a feast made of the Lord, 
with a spirit merry and glad, with a Father rejoicing 
and all the family of God rejoicing. Oh, my hearer, it 
is worth while to come home. It is coming to a heritage 



THE PRODIGAL SON — No. III. 



207 



of glory that shall never be taken away and never be 
diminished. The crown and the palm branch and the 
harp, they mean something in that kingdom of our Fa- 
ther. See the glory of not having it as wages. It is 
given without measure. See the glory of its being a 
gift. Your title to it is clear ; nobody can take it from 
you. There is nothing about it, that shall ever molest 
or make you afraid. A life with God! Has any body 
ever told us what heaven is ? We are told that here, in 
mortal language, nobody can tell. " It hath not en- 
tered," etc. We know that here upon earth, there are 
losses and disappointments, wrongs and deceptions, 
woes and sicknesses and sorrows. There, nothing comes 
that can deceive or make a lie. There the wicked cease 
to trouble and the weary are at rest. Tears are wiped 
away from off all faces. No more sickness, nor woes, 
nor darkness. Well, that is infinitely much, but it is 
not all, God shall cause us to eat and be merry, to feed 
on things divine and rejoice for ever and ever. There 
is to be music and dancing; Heaven, joy and peace in 
the Holy Ghost. This it is to which Gocl invites us. 
This it is to which Jesus died to bring us. Oh, sup- 
pose, your little child were out, having lost its way, or 
afraid to come home, fallen among cruel and wicked 
souls, cold and naked and hungry, buffeted by the winds 
and evil passions, with no arm to shelter it, no living 
breast to pillow it. What would you not give to get it 
back? Such a joy is God's when the sinner returns. 
But what would that child not give to get back ? Such 
a relief and joy is that of the sinner that returns ! What 
thing in the house could be denied it that could minis- 
ter to its comfort ? Such a welcome has our Father, for 
every penitent; such a home, for every rescued, recon- 



208 



SERMONS. 



ciled child. Suppose that child were hardened and 
would not come, suppose it were insensible to give love> 
then what a grief would be yours, what double need of 
grieving. Such a grief is God's, over the thoughtless, 
thankless, sinning prodigal heart. Can any of us here to- 
day have such a heart ? Then listen, sinner, Jesus calls 
you. Hasten, for thy Father is waiting. Thy ransom is 
paid. Ihy welcome is before you. "The spirit in thy 
heart is whispering sinner^come." It is the joy of that 
spirit to say through Christ to all God's children, come. 
And oh, beloved, may we all remember what we were, 
and what we are, and what we may become, remember, 
Him who brought us this glad news, and purchased us 
with His own blood, that we may be the children of the 
Highest. Wrapt in that robe which He gives to them 
that believe, may we, not be hired servants, but true 
sons, risen with Christ. 



THE PRODIGAL SON.— No. IY. 

Luke 15: 25, 32. — Now, His elder son was in the field, and as he came 
and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called 
one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto 
him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because 
he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go 
in, therefore came his father out, and entreated him. And he answering, 
said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed 
I at any time thy commandments, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that 
I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come* 
who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the 
fatted calf. And he said unto him, son, thou art ever with me, and all that 
I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for 
this thy brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. 



On three former occasions we have dwelt upon the re- 
cord of this Prodigal Son. First, upon his estrangement 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. IV. 



209 



from home, and its consequent debasement. Second, his 
coming to himself and resolving to return. Third, his 
reception at home. Last Sunday night, our souls were 
moved in contemplating the watching, hastening, yearn- 
ing love, wherewith his father forgot the past, and wel- 
comed him to a happier and worthier future. We reached 
the prime thought the parable was intended to express, 
the great fatherhood of God, with all its wealth of affec- 
tion, the fountain of exhaustless blessing. There the 
parable might have ended, for the joy was full. But the 
wisdom of the faithful Saviour saw a lesson beyond it. It 
is needful we should know, that the true sonship consists, 
not in any outward relations, but in pure filiation, in a 
participation of nature. This is the counterpart of God's 
love, the object on account of which He loved us. The 
father's action toward the prodigal shows the love of 
God for us all. The conduct of the elder son shows 
the want in us of such a love toward each other. 

You will recollect, in the earlier part of the parable, 
mention was made of an " elder brother." As the recital 
progressed he disappeared, till now he emerges to-night, 
the occasion to us of sad reflection, but not, on that 
account, necessarily the occasion of reflections any the 
less instructive. I remarked, on a former occasion, that 
possibly, by the fact of this elder brother's remaining 
at home, might have been meant to convey the thought 
that, now through the redemption, our first estate is one 
of sonship — that, as a matter of fact, we are created, 
not only with capabilities, but with affinities for things 
divine ; that truly man is the grandest creation of which 
we have any knowledge. While that is true, still, as 
compared with God, what a worm man is ! What an 
interval between him and Deity ! How everything in 



210 



SERMONS. 



divine action is wanting to him. The best we can say 
of him is, that he has a perception of the divine, not 
that he is divine. Very often in his best estate, he but 
reveals the poverty of his being. He is grand when 
compared with all that is below him. He sinks into 
pitiable proportions when compared with God. His 
glory above that of all earthly creatures is, that he can 
become like God. His glory is, that for this end, all 
things earthly minister to him. He alone has religion. 
Likeness to God in him is religion. 

You will recollect this parable was occasioned by the 
murmuring of the Scribes and Pharisees. They could 
not understand Christ's sympathy for publicans and 
sinners. They did not see how, if anybody needed the 
physician, it surely was the sick ; that if anybody 
needed God, it was surely these very souls who knew 
Him not — the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But 
not only this, the Scribes and Pharisees, professors of 
religion, set up to be God's children. The Saviour does 
not dispute their position. But they undertook to say 
that others were not, and for that reason ought not to 
be considered children, sons, as well as themselves. 
This Christ disputes. Their thoughts prove that even 
if they were sons, their sonship was of no high order ; 
they had little of God, and knew little of God. The 
true sonship is likeness to God. This the Saviour wished 
to show. It is this, this part of the parable illus- 
trates. It is easy to see, therefore, who is meant by 
this elder son. 

If we carry the parable off into the mere generalities 
of Jews and Gentiles, of Pharisees and sinners, I think 
we shall lose its efficacy. The parable is built not upon 
any mere accident, but upon law. It applies to all ages, 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. IV. 



211 



and therefore, to us as much as to the Jews. The elder 
brother means the Church, the representative Church, 
— not the Church considered as visible or invisible, 
but the Church, acting, assuming, administering. The 
younger brother means the worldly or unconverted. 

The record of this elder brother, is a condensed Church 
history, so far as the Church has a history that can be 
recorded. You know that any history is not the record 
of real life, but only of some accidents of life. Natural 
history can give little incite into the actual condition of 
an age, or a people. We read of kings and armies, of 
wars and laws, of progress in outline. Certain facts 
represent a great multitude of facts. So in Church his- 
tory, and this record of the elder brother represents 
much of Church history. He had been in the field. 
This implies he had been at work. The Saviour does 
not intimate that there was any mistake about that. 
He had been seeking to augment the estate. But to 
what purpose ? with what motive ? Was it that he 
might magnify his father, or that the estate and his 
father might magnify him ? These are questions worth 
asking. The world has often had occasion to analyze 
the claims and actions of the Church. It has often 
come to the conclusion that they, whom the Church was 
carrying, were more in number, than they, who were 
carrying the Church. When you look at those Jews ; 
yes, when you look at ages long subsequent to those 
Jews, when you look through the Middle Ages, when 
you come nearer home than that, when you contemplate 
the imposing names and pretensions of Church dignita- 
ries, when you contemplate the official zeal and anxiety 
for creed and Church and custom, we may well ask, is 
it zeal and anxiety for God, or for themselves ? Suppose, 



212 



SERMONS. 



in such a case as Wolsey's, and in many others just 
like it, a real work had been there to be done ; suppose 
a real cross had been there to be carried ; suppose there 
had been any shame to be despised, had they been there 
at all ? The world ivill ask such questions ; it does ask 
them. We may think it is rather unkind in the world 
to do it. Still, it is only the world, and we can hardly 
expect of it anything better. It is very natural, but 
would it not be wise for the Church to ask it herself 
sometimes ? I know that when we do ask it, we are 
soon said to be no friend of the Church. We are sup- 
posed to be gloomy, ill-boding prophets. The query, 
however, seriously entertained, would cause us, might 
cause us, to see how it is, our grand things cannot, after 
all, glorify God. So far from attracting the world, for 
the world's own sake we ought not to have them, be- 
cause they will put the wrong construction upon them. 
We might see that " God, who made the world, being 
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made 
with hands, neither is worshiped with men's hands, as 
though He needed anything." We might see that, after 
all, it is not strange that the grander we become, the 
less efficient we are — that the more of our glory we 
have, the less there is of God — that the more stone 'we 
possess, the more we want bread. I cannot dwell here, 
for there is enough here in itself to occupy the half-hour, 
but there is thought suggested here, which followed out, 
would show us why the Church should be like Christ 
in all things, would show us the fallacy of all that un- 
dertakes to teach us that God wants our earthly things. 
Soul is never sensuous, nor carnal. For that reason, 
the more we represent it, the less we have. It cannot 
be, but that the further we go in that direction, the fur- 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. IV. 



213 



ther we go from God. In this direction we will per- 
ceive why sacrifice and mercy are always in inverse pro- 
portions, and why God loves mercy more than sacrifice, 
It is well to be in the field, but it is better to be there in 
holy motion, in godlike purpose — there as Elijah was" 
there, as Jeremiah and Paul and the true sons of God 
have ever been there. We cannot help feeling, if we 
could give ourselves, as Christ gave Himself, for the 
glory of God, it would be easier for us all to live and 
all have more true glory at last. 

He draws near and hears music and dancing. When 
he learns the cause — " Thy brother is come" he is angry, 
and will not go in. Instantly a sort of low jealousy 
arises. He puts on an air of conscious injury. He 
acts as if some injustice had been clone him, as if the 
enjoyment of another was something taken from him- 
self. Mark, the parallel has relation to the Scribes and 
Pharisees. Mark its force, as applied to that imme- 
diate occasion. They imagined they had ever been in 
the house — they transgressed no commandment. They 
come now and find the Gentiles taken into the covenant, 
the Samaritans and sinners all taken back, and placed 
within the reach of heaven. Emmanuel sits there with 
publicans, while the Church authorities and dignitaries 
appear to be slighted. Instead of inquiring the cause, 
they unreasonably complain. If we let this man go in, 
the Romans will come and take away our place and 
nation. They have certain assumptions of their own 
importance and authority, certain assumptions as to 
what God's kingdom is, so rooted and grounded in them, 
they are incapable of inquiry. You observe, the king- 
dom they had built was not God's kingdom, at all • that 
which they supposed needed to be guarded, was the 



214 



SERMONS. 



thing for human good, needing to be destroyed. Vir- 
tually they have taken the management of the estate 
in their own hands. The father is ignored. They assume 
his prerogatives. They make laws. They prescribe 
what God shall do, or shall not do. They take the keys. 
In reality, they are worse than the prodigal. He asks 
for his portion, and goes off and sets up for himself. 
They stay at home and turn their father out. You see, 
then, how it is, that spiritual pride is the deadliest of 
all pride. You see running through that fact, the w T ords 
of Christ — " Verily, I say unto you, the publicans and 
harlots," etc. You see that the pinnacle of the temple is 
a dangerous place. But what have the ages ever been 
doing, but repeating this folly. What does the Pope 
claim to-day, but " the power of the keys." Would you 
like to be the Pope ? Yes, but look at every sect. 
They are all only so many Popes. Each one is perfectly 
sure it knows what man wants, and what God ought to 
do, better than God knows. How strange it is, that all 
the reformations of the ages have had to leave behind 
the elder brothers. The Jews would not accept the 
Gospel. They got angry and staid out. The Romanists 
would not come into the Reformation. They got angry 
and staid out. So all reformations have left some of 
us behind, and, from many signs of the times, we are 
entering upon a dispensation of grander proportions 
than any the world has known, from which many of us 
are to be left behind, because we will get angry, and re- 
fuse to come in. Can nothing new happen in this human 
family? Is every son and daughter gathered back? 
And if not, are there not many surprises yet for us all ? 
And ought it to be a surprise, when God is what He is, 
when Christ is such a Christ, that these sons are con- 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. IV. 



215 



stantly coming back ? Who should be better prepared, 
or who has a better right to enter in and rejoice, than 
all the elder sons. Observe, we all rejoice when another 
soul joins our sect, but this is not the point here. We 
get angry when the limits of the great Church are 
extended, when an old fence is destroyed. Mark the 
progress of the last three hundred years. Multitudes 
died in battle to prevent the progress of the Reforma- 
tion. Then, at every step, it was assumed by the elder 
brother that there was no step beyond. The recog- 
nition of Jew and Romanist as citizens, the toleration 
of Quakers and Methodists as religionists — each had its 
struggle, each was occasion of fearful prognostics, each 
was thought to be the sweeping away of all religion, 
till, as I remarked a few Sundays ago, the Europeans 
cannot understand how we have any religion at all, 
because we have no State Church, or State Religion. 
But shall this Gospel-view shoot out no new branch, 
develop no new life, attach no other chapter of this lost 
humanity ? It is remarkable, of all the reformations 
against which the elder brother has grumbled, that they 
have carried men to a larger liberty, opened a new terri- 
tory, and brought forth a richer heritage. It is ever a 
fatted calf with which God is welcoming the return of 
his children. It is singular how, in holding on to the 
tradition of the elders, we often sneer at the very word 
"progress." How we forget that man is more than we, 
and God is more than we, and time is more than we ; 
how, in turning them out of our thoughts, we have not 
a true faith, as an anchor within the vail, and so literally 
chain ourselves to littleness. If there are laws in the 
universe, then this law of growth is certainly one. If 
there is one, this elder brother has uniformly forgotten 



216 



SERMONS. 



it is this, and hence we find actually existing, moral 
fossils, as well as physical fossils. We can find a petri- 
faction of perhaps every form of religion that ever 
existed ; forms of religion that the world has long, long 
centuries left behind, still exist, and it is one of the 
most remarkable facts which all time presents. It is 
singular, too, that every transition period has been a 
period of anger, and hence too often the history of 
religion is the history of controversy. That ought not 
to be. It is not in Jesus. The elder brother is he by 
whom the work has been sustained, and he should be 
the first to enter in and rejoice. But, observe the lan- 
guage of this selfish, angry elder brother. " Lo these 
many years do I serve thee." Was it indeed his father 
he had served ? Well, we have thought of that. But 
he does not say, "these many years have I loved thee." 
That not being in his heart, it is not upon his tongue. 
" Neither transgressed I thy commandments at any 
time." Yes, and neither had he ever got beyond the 
commandment, and for that very reason never up to it. 
To him the law is still a necessity. He is truly a ser- 
vant, not a son. Service to him is not " perfect free- 
dom." " And yet thou never gavest me a kid." In- 
deed, and on whose bounty had he been subsisting — 
whose riches had he been sharing ? And if he had 
never made merry with his friends, what was it that 
prevented, but his own narrow nature, so unlike his 
father, it had prevented his entering into sympathy 
with him. " But as soon as this thy son is come." He 
does not say " as soon as this my brother is come," " as 
soon as this my brother is returned and got home again." 
Here he shows us again the heart within him. No re- 
sponse, no echo there indicative of love, of anything 



THE PRODIGAL SON — No. IV. 



217 



akin to God, and then, he reaps up the prodigal's life, 
runs over the horrid catalogue, dwells with emphatic 
satisfaction upon its darkest feature. Ah! how like 
man is that ! When we get into trouble, how ready is 
everybody to tell us the cause, and how few ready to 
help us out ? What a contrast here with the affection- 
ate action of the father himself! Mark the silence of 
Christ here, He virtually admits the truth of the elder 
brother's cruel charge — i. e., cruel in that he brought it 
up at all. You recollect the action of the Saviour him- 
self, when He was called upon to judge a trembling sin- 
ner, how He said, " neither do I condemn thee." Ad- 
mit then that this prodigal was mean, wholly undeserv- 
ing, admit that he was no better than the elder brother, 
still does this fact make the elder brother noble ? does 
it make him like his father ? Is he set free from mean- 
ness ? Is he a true son ? Why is he in his father's 
house, heir to such a heritage ? Is it by his merit ? Is 
it not equally by the father's long-suffering and affec- 
tion ? Is it not simply of free grace ; even if there is a 
difference, cannot infinite love cover one as much as the 
other ? Nay — if the Prodigal were more penitent, was 
he not more deeply covered ? If much had been for- 
given, might he not for that very reason love the more, 
and if he did, even upon mortal reasoning, was it not a 
reason why he should be more loved ? Ah ! brethren, 
this is what we so often forget, in our controversies, that 
none of us are in God's favor except by His mercy, and 
if He chooses to have mercy, who of us shall say nay ? 
Do we not often, tacitly, but still actually, reckon upon 
our good works, as though we could possibly have any ? 
Theoretically we believe in justification by faith. Prac- 
tically we set up a claim by works, that is to say, we 



218 



SERMONS. 



give to faith the efficacy of a good work ; we place a 
merit in it, and then we make God our debtor for what 
we do for Him. But what are our good works ? What 
can they be at best ? " The tender mercies of the wicked 
are cruel ; the refinement of the vulgar is vulgarity ; the 
righteousness of the self-righteous is sin." You see noth- 
ing can go higher than itself, and what if we know not 
the purity and holiness of God ? Why, we shall not 
only think God is indebted to us for keeping command- 
ments, but attach a merit to our abstaining from certain 
evil practices. How often do we hear men speak in 
tones which indicate, that they think they have done 
more for religion than religion has ever done for them. 

Then, again, look at the tone here of this elder 
brother. It indicates that he thought the Prodigal's life 
of indulgence had been a blessing, a life of enjoyment, 
something that for some reason or other denied himself. 
Just as we, in our way of talking, often imply that to 
be religious is to make a sacrifice, give up something good. 
I think multitudes of people have that idea, that by be- 
coming religious they will lose something. They are 
not taught by us that they are to rise to a higher plane 
of being and therefore to a higher enjoyment. We 
somehow, by our hankering after the world, imply, that 
the worldly and sensuous have higher pleasures than 
ourselves, and so in reality we often make religion a 
perpetual penance, a price we are to pay here upon 
earth for great happiness by and by, make religion a 
sour fault-finding — a joyless, monotonous service. 

I do believe if we could all live upon the plane on 
which God desires us to live, on which Christ lived, 
the Church itself would convert, the life would per- 
suade, and preaching need be nothing but instructing. 



THE PRODIGAL SON — No. IV. 



219 



As it is, in the absence of that higher life, all preaching 
is proportionally paralyzed. In thinking that the wicked 
can have a life that by any propriety can be called a 
life of enjoyment, I do not wonder we misunderstand 
God's mercy, that it seems to us as if He offered a pre- 
mium to sin by rejoicing when the sinner returns. We 
do not see that worldliness and all sin is soul-sickness, 
and that the more sick our child has been, the greater 
the rejoicing when the recovery is accomplished. It 
was this which made the elder son lament the fatted 
calf. What would he have said, if he had gone in and 
seen the robe, and the shoes, and the ring. But, " to 
whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." 

Listen to the reply of the father : " Son, thou art 
ever with me, all that I have is thine." If you have 
not enjoyed and do not enjoy, whose fault is it? Surely 
you would not narrow the universe down to yourself. 
Surely you would not deprive me of joy, because you 
are too narrow to receive any more. " It was meet." 
I do not say it was my will. I say nothing about my 
authority. It was fit. Love could do no otherwise. 
This is love. My heart yearned so, as a father I must. 
" This thy brother." The fact that he is a brother ought 
to make you rejoice, too. " He was dead, and is alive 
again. He was lost and is found." But, you do not 
love him — you do not love me ; you love yourself. 
Perhaps you love nobody. If so, then, how are you 
worthier than he ? If so, then, though you have never 
left me, you have staid home to little purpose. You 
know very little about me. This is life eternal, truly 
to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath 
sent. 

Thus, brethren, you see, the Saviour while express- 



220 



SERMONS. 



ing the fatherhood of God, also tells us what a soraship 
must be, likeness to God. You see, He tells these Jews 
what a sonship is, that without which we are a sound- 
ing brass or a tinkling symbol. Thus we come to this 
essential query, What, if we do belong to the Church, 
but have not the likeness of God ? 

Thus, we learn these lessons : First — we may be in 
our Father's house, and yet be very unheavenly. Be- 
ing a Church member is not necessarily being Christ- 
like, and Christ-likeness alone is salvation. Without 
that we cannot see the Lord. 

Second — we can have no heritage separate from and 
independent of our Father's and our brethren's ; or, in 
other words, we can have a heritage only as we " enter 
in," upon our Father's and our brethren's. Their heri- 
tage is ours. If our religion is mere sectarian pride, or 
Church zeal, then there is no practical difference be- 
tween us and the ungodly. Without the true sonship, 
the world will see, what the world does so often see, 
the same passions and ambitions in the one as in the 
other, only playing upon different grounds. With the 
true sonship, we possess all things. 

Third — nothing can be gained to God, or to our fel- 
low-men, by narrowness. But much may be lost. This 
parable was spoken against the Pharisees. The Saviour 
called the Pharisees " hypocrites." We think a hypo- 
crite is a person who intends to deceive. This is a mis- 
take. It is a person who is self-deceived, and he is 
very sincere in his self-deception. This marks for us 
one great difference between a true and a false religion, 
One is open always to growth, the other is determined 
to stand still. One carries the ages forward, the other 
the ages leave behind. When we return from our field 



THE PRODIGAL SON— No. IV. 



221 



it is right to hear the music and dancing — our ear should 
be open. It is right to be sure to find out what it means. 
But if we be assured it means the return of any sinner ; 
if, the gathering in and healing of any nation, any mem- 
ber of this human family ; if, the extension of the king- 
dom of love, which is the Christ-Kingdom, then we ought 
to go in. Our Father entreats us. All that He has is 
ours. If there is any broader truth, it is for us — if any 
greater freedom, it is for us — if any feast of fat things, 
it is for us, unless we are angry and refuse to go in. 

Fourth — love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is her 
own reward. You need nothing else than to be with 
your father all the time, every day, every night, through- 
out all vicissitude. This is a whole heritage in itself. 
It embraces all that the Father hath. Rejoice with 
Him every day. Let your service be above all fear. Let 
your religion be a rejoicing. Have faith in your Father, 
in His love. Let the world see that you are satisfied 
with what religion gives, that to you it is love and joy 
and peace, that by it you can make, and do make, your 
Father's service more attractive to all your brethren. 

Finally, the whole parable teaches us, that God is love, 
that all we are brethren, that God loves one of us as 
much as another. We are all about equally deserving, 
i. e., all undeserving. But true sonship consists in being 
like Him — merciful as He is merciful, perfect as He is 
perfect, not perfect according to any law or creed of 
ours, but as God is perfect in love and holiness. It is 
not prodigality that opens the way to His heart. It is 
not sordid, selfish, stay-at-home religion that makes 
Him love us. It is likeness to Himself, as it is in 
Christ, which makes us sons. Once here we shall love 
one another. This God desires in us all. For this He 



222 



SERMONS. 



is working. For this Jesus came, and all the means of 
grace exist. Peace on earth, good will among men. 
This the ages shall produce. This, because He is love, 
and because He lives. He will not resign His estate. 
He will not allow us to ruin it. We must come up to 
Him. He is not coming down to us. He lives, and 
intends to keep the power of the keys. We do not want 
it, nor want it anywhere but in His hands. We do 
want to know that it is in His hands. Knowing that, 
we can walk by faith. We can go to our field, wherever 
that field may take us, and work in faith, and while 
working, rejoicing that the prodigals are coming home, 
that our Father is rejoicing — that the great family circle 
is being completed. By, and by, as our day declines, 
and the shades of night gather us homeward, as we 
approach, may we hear the music and the dancing. May 
our souls be thrilled with a holy delight. May we, too, 
enter in with all those who have gone before us, and 
hear Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, our 
forerunner in glory, bid us enter into the joy of our Lord. 



EPIPHANY. 



Matthew 2 : 11. — And when they had opened their treasures, they pre- 
sented unto Him gifts ; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 



In the progress of time, we are brought again to the 
season of the Epiphany. This word "Epiphany" means 
manifestation. More directly, it is connected with the 
incident of which we read in the Scripture, the presen- 



EPIPHANY. 



223 



tation of Christ to three wise men, or, more exactly, 
the three wise men led to Christ. This presentation is 
supposed to be typical of the fact that Christ was 
manifested for Gentiles as well as Jews. Otherwise 
expressed, it is typical of the fact that Christ came to 
and for the whole race. This Epiphany to the wise 
men, thus embodies a central fact. As often as its 
celebration occurs, it revives to us a central idea. 

In my judgment, all things, i. e., all actual facts, ele- 
ments, so to speak of Christ's earthly being, are typical. 
We use the expression, sometimes, that Christ was the 
end of all types. A better expression would be, that 
He was the consummation and perfection of types. 
Antecedent types embraced Him. He embraced great 
facts. He was the door to great territories of being — 
reaching out through all time and all eternity, for man. 
In other words, God being perfect, therefore infinite, 
one part of His being was in harmony with every other 
part. What He did, could not help being linked with 
all things that were, and were to be. 

The simple incarnation itself was transcendently in- 
structive and prophetic. You have in it a divinity, 
born of this humanity, through the operation of the 
Holy Ghost — a divinity passing through the vicissitudes 
of development, subject to all natural and mortal contin- 
gencies, as we have recorded in the Gospel for this day. 
" Christ was subject to His parents." " He increased 
in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." 
The divine grew with the human, till it, at last van- 
quished all ignorance, all suffering, all enmity, and tri- 
umphed everlastingly. As if God would tell us, thus 
are born all things divine, and thus shall God grow in 
this humanity. So with this Epiphany scene, the nu- 



224 



SERMONS. 



cleus, as I have said, of a central thought. There are 
wise men as opposed to ignorant men, from regions 
afar — wise men that are kings, for wisdom alone is royal, 
rich men, as wisdom alone is rich, wise men, seeking 
something better, as wisdom alone seeks. Led by a 
brightness in the heavens above, out-hung by God for 
all that can see. The divine brightness responding to 
the human longing, till it is brought to incarnate Deity, 
that Deity veiled in humility, yet worthy to receive the 
best offerings that wisdom and riches can give, the 
richest products that this land of mortality, our native 
land, can yield. He, greater than all kings, and richer 
than all riches — they unable to add anything to Him, 
but honoring Him most, and exhibiting their true riches 
in coming to Him at all. This, I say, is prophetic. 
All this you have expressed in this simple utterance of 
Scripture, " And when they had opened," &c. 

But He was there to he manifested. As He was the 
" desired of all nations," so God intended Him for all na- 
tions. In this human heart was a longing ; He was 
God's response to that longing. This world wanted life, 
as all true wisdom has forever testified. Christ was 
life, the divine life, that was wanted. St. John says, 
" the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear 
witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was 
with the Father, and was manifested unto us." The 
divine life is alone eternal, and the eternal life is alone 
divine. That alone is life. In another place, St. John 
says, " He was manifested that He might destroy the works 
of the devil" There you have what a manifestation of 
Christ is, namely, a manifestation of divine life in the 
flesh, and the object of it, namely, the redemption of 
man from the power of Satan, the two sides of the same 



EPIPHANY. 225 

thing, all of it culminating in the great fact, man truly 
royal, but all royalty and all it involves, freely tribu- 
tary to the King of Kings, the Everlasting God. Man 
wholly God's, by creation, by redemption, and now by 
his own conscious volition, freely God's forever. God's 
kingdom thus, not a kingdom of force, but a kingdom 
desired and implored, every subject convinced there is 
nothing else ft to reign over it, and only more and more 
desirous that God should more and more reign over it, 
by more and more rejoicing in it. Hence, in the very 
incarnation itself you get the pledge of all the promises 
made by the incarnation, a kingdom of true glory for 
man, with God, that shall know no end — Deity in this 
humanity — Deity incarnate. That is all you have in 
that manger scene. Then, by it, this humanity lifted 
up to God. 

But in these very thoughts of a kingdom growing, of 
life, and then of " the works of the devil," of Satan, of 
death, you get very distinctly the idea of two sides. 
Yes, you get many distinct ideas. Old theologians used 
to spend a great deal of time in discussing the origin of 
evil, the supremacy of God, the free agency of man, and 
other abstract and kindred subjects. They did not take 
facts, or laws, seen to exist, and themselves work by 
them, but were, as we should be, in neglecting the law 
of gravitation, and endeavoring to go behind it, to re- 
mote causes, and ask what it is, or tvhy it is ? The 
First Cause in everything, is hidden from us ; but the 
truth is, the bare existence of light implies darkness. 
If you think of a universe, you must contrast with it 
the thought of no universe, nothingness. It is only by 
knowledge, you create the idea of ignorance. The brute 
beast knows nothing, not even ignorance. The negative 



226 



SERMONS. 



is always first. Space must be before body, darkness 
before light. Such is the universal order ; it is in the 
very nature of intelligence. To ask, why? is a childish 
asking. The very thought of God, is a pledge that all 
things are supremely best. To find out the position, 
that which is, to accept it, to place oneself in harmony 
with it, that is wisdom. Religion is, finding God, and 
opening our treasures, presenting to Him the best of 
them all. Only wisdom can do that. 

Jesus Christ was the first revealer of this, and its first 
illustrator. Whatever of it other men did, these Magi 
themselves — e. g., they did mechanically, as it were 
out of certain instincts which they did not and could 
not define. The peculiar work of Christianity has been, 
because it was the peculiar work of Christ, to bring 
the positive nature of man to closer communion with God, 
to increase the positive nature, for that is to commune with 
God — i. e., it is communion with good, or goodness, and 
so far with God. The coming of a Saviour at all im- 
plies sin. Sin is ignorance, darkness, hence transgres- 
sion of law, because we know not that law is, know not 
where it is, nor what it is. The Saviour does not go to 
work analyzing sin. There is nothing to analyze. Sin 
is negative, the absence of virtue. He does not con- 
demn us for being in it. It is because we are in it that 
He has come. But this is the condemnation, light has 
come, and we love the darkness rather than light. The 
degree of your love of darkness is the degree of your 
condemnation. That love of darkness is all the Saviour 
even denounced, the taking for granted, that our dixit, 
our doctrine, our system, was the truth, life and light. 
Pharisaic formula, Pharisaic pride, that the Saviour de- 
nounced. It took for granted its little system could 



EPIPHANY. 



227 



comprehend God, and by refusing to stir out of that, 
thereby stood condemned. That was condemnation, to 
be in it. It is condemnation to any man that is in it, 
whether he is inside of a Church, or not. Pride, self- 
sufficiency, self-conceit, that is always opposed to God. 
It matters not what shape it takes. But to everything 
else, Jesus always presupposes a better nature. The 
poor Magdelene bowed at his feet, scorned by Simon, 
how like God, to her yearning, He freely and instant- 
ly responds. The poor woman overtaken in sin. 
" Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more." 
You know you have sinned. That is condemnation 
enough. Feel your meanness. Rise into thy better 
self. See the true life. See that, without which you 
feel degraded and are degraded, without which you are 
not up to where God wants you and where you wish 
yourself to be. Always taking for granted, you per- 
ceive, the power to see, the faculty by which to pursue 
and lay hold of the better life. 

And hence this sublime naturalness in Christ. Why, 
what is man ? Is he a bundle of nothingness ? Has 
he no faculties ? Are body and appetite and passion, 
is mere animal, manhood ? Is mind nothing, and all the 
moral faculties nothing, and all this affectional nature 
nothing? Did God mean nothing by them when He 
created them ? What does God mean, when He says 
that in the image of God He created man ? You abso- 
lutely can have no conception of God, except as you 
reach it through this thing that we call manhood. It 
is only as you have a proper conception of man that you 
can have a proper conception of God. If you leave out 
these elements of mind and morals and affection, you 
have not man at all. It is of these you think when you 



228 



SERMONS. 



think of manhood. It is these without which you could 
not have the idea of wisdom. These, for you or me, 
create wisdom, or goodness, make one of us worthier 
than another. They explain the idea of religion and 
create your eternity different to mine. What is the 
wonderfulness of the life of Christ ? We have been in 
the habit of putting it in His miracles, in His precepts, 
more especially in that thing of which He said very 
little and which / am certain none of us understand, His 
atonement. But the great wonderfulness of that life is 
not in one or all of these. No ! we have erred and 
failed to glorify Him in placing it exclusively there. It 
was this which caused the poet Lessing, (infidel, I sup- 
pose we would call him,) to write, respecting us : 

" Christianity, not manhood, is their pride. 
E'en that which from their founder down has spiced 
Their superstition with humanity ; 
Tis not for their humanity, they love it ; 
No, but because Christ taught, Christ practiced it. 
Happy for them He was so good a man, — 
Happy for them they can trust His virtue. 
His virtue ? not His virtue, but His name, 
They say shall spread abroad and shall drown 
And put to shame, the names of all good men : 
The name, the name, is all their pride." 

But, brethren, there is a great deal of truth in that, 
" Happy for them He was so good a man." It was His 
goodness, His naturalness, that was so wonderful. He 
was the expression to us of a fidl manhood, and therefore 
the expression to us of the Father. He was the per- 
fection of the image in which God created us. He was 
the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express 
image of His person, the ideal and model we once lost, 
and which God wishes us again to reach. There was 
nothing stilted about Him, nothing was artificial, nothing 



EPIPHANY. 



229 



borrowed and put on, nothing conventional. His mind — 
what a quickness and grasp it had ! His moral faculties, 
what a harmony and purity was there ! His affections — 
when has the world seen anything like it ! Against 
these the surges of time have rolled, and peacefully 
subsided. It is against these alone the gates of dark- 
ness have not been able to prevail. Our doctrines have 
never defended Christ. They have defended our notions, 
and in defending them made us deny Christ. What is it 
that has made infidels, so much as church quarrels, and 
church dignities, and church machinery, and church 
pride ? What has made infidels, so much as the unlike- 
ness of Christians, so-called, to Christ ? Nothing. No- 
thing is so opposed to all leanness and narrowness as 
Christ, and nothing is so opposed to Christ as leanness 
and narrowness. 

Somehow, in himself, man feels a sort of conscious- 
ness of two selfs. One that is animal and gross, and 
sordid, that is not himself. One that is noble, and pure, 
and loving, that is himself. One he wants to increase, 
one he wants to crucify. In Christ man sees his better 
self. Men love Him, because all that we can love is in 
Him. There you feel you are near to God. Being 
there, you are near to God. That was the object of 
Jesus' coming, that you might get there, and being there, 
so, be near to God. 

Now, what does he tell us is the first great command- 
ment, the thing absolutely and universally imperative, 
the sum and substance of religion? " Love God with 
all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind." 
He does not merely mean to say that love of God is 
imperative, but He defines what a love of God is — con- 
secration of heart, and soul, and mind — intellect, morals 



230 



SERMONS. 



and affections. There you have the three essentials, ele- 
ments, of man, the three essential elements of moral 
being. Man is a trinity. All great unities are trinities. 
Man is intellect, morals and affections. To cultivate 
these, to develop them, to make them harmonious, is 
to be religious, to serve God, to be uplifted to God. 
These are the natural productions of this our native 
clime. These are our treasures. These are the offer- 
ings we are to make to God — the gold, and frankincense, 
and myrrh, to offer which is itself to prove that we are 
royal — this it is to lay our dominion at the feet of Christ, 
and have Him " Lord of all" 

Now, I think these thoughts to us are very valuable, 
and these things are the things Christians have not 
always done, and are not now everywhere doing. There 
is no other way in which God can be manifested to us 
except in a redeemed manhood. There is no way in which 
you can make an Epiphany of Christ except as your 
manhood is redeemed, exalted, and made like Christ, L e., 
except as your manhood is clothed in Christ, and you 
see what I mean by that — in what Christ was. This is 
that prayer of Christ, " That they all may be one, as 
thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also 
may be one in us." This thought is not a prevailing one 
among us, and for lack of it, we are often hindering 
Christ more than helping Him. What has the Church 
done from a period very near the beginning ? Simply 
made a creed and said, "believe that, and you are 
saved." Now, in the beginning, creeds were very essen- 
tial things ; that is to say, they were truth formulas, 
and as such, creeds are at all times essential things. 
But no creed can hold all the truth. Man cannot make 
a cup that will hold the universe. Life is always broader 



EPIPHANY. 



231 



than our homes. After getting the creed, it, and not 
the truth, was the object that must spread. " The 
name, the name," as Lossing said, was all their boast. 
In progress of time, the truth in it was lost, and hence, 
to spread the Church was to spread Christ. That we 
are at to-day. To great numbers of us, an Epiphany 
of Christ means a spread of our Church, whatever that 
may be. But, thank God, the world, now-a-days, never 
asks and never cares what Church a man belongs to. 
If he is broad, and strong, and noble, and manly, if he 
expresses their ideal of a Christian, they seek no fur- 
ther, and if he is not that, they pity the Church that 
has to carry him. It may be, I cannot say, but it some- 
times seems to me, that they whom the Church is car- 
rying, are more in number than they who are carrying 
the Church. In other words, let a man get the idea 
that his Church is the only Church, or let a man in any 
Church, get the idea that the Church, all together, spe- 
cifically so-called, alone is Christian, and will narrow 
him, and so far make him a burden to all alike, — a vitia- 
ted globule, and so far a disease to the whole body. 

Some of you ask me, do I think, humanity and mor- 
ality, and intelligence, and charity, are religion ? Let 
me ask you, do you think that is religion which leaves 
all these out ? Did Jesus Christ leave them out of the 
Sermon on the Mount ? or out of any hour of His life ? 
Do you suppose a righteous Jew, or a truly wise man 
from Arabia, God is going to leave out of His heaven ? 
Look at that star leading the wise men. Will we never 
learn anything from the Bible ! That star was the Holy 
Ghost, God's own power, which never rests till it stands 
where Jesus is. To Him, all wisdom must come, be- 
cause the Holy Ghost leads. Hath God no star except 



232 



SERMONS. 



the feeble lamp that you and I hang out ? Is there no 
God the Holy Ghost, mightier than you and me, and 
broader than all our churches put together ? Hath that 
Holy Ghost anything to reveal, except that incarnate 
God, the things that are of Jesus Christ ? Why, my 
brethren, we forget how, with all our churches and all 
our creeds, God is getting on often in spite of us more 
than by means of us. Look at Christian life — life, 
rather, within the Churches. Is it indicative of deep- 
rooted and far-reaching thought ? Many are the thought- 
ful wise men outside what we call the Church, who hang 
their heads in sorrow over some of us inside of it. Is 
all knowledge embraced by us ? Is intellect and reason, 
alone comprehensive here ? Again you ask, will know- 
ledge save us ? Again let me ask, can we be saved by 
ignorance ? When I see Christian people wasting pre- 
cious time on frills and ruffles, whole hours and days, 
all sacred, going up in trifles — when I see the levity 
that pervades Christian society — I feel they are not 
Christian, believe what they may. We belie the name 
that saved us ; we cast a shadow across the glory of 
Christ. We make infidels, for us to turn round and 
abuse them after they are made. The pure gold of 
God's manhood we bury in the dirt, and offer the Sa- 
viour a lip-service and the service of forms. Is that an 
Epiphany ? By us, at that rate, there is not and never 
can be an Epiphany of Christ. There is an Epiphany 
of our carnal, grosser nature — that's all. Then look at 
morals. Has the Christian Church a monopoly of them ? 
Is life in Italy purer than life in Japan? Would you 
send a Chinaman to Christian Paris, as we send so many 
of our sons and daughters, for his model in morals. I 
do not mean to say that life among Christian people is 



EPIPHANY. 233 

immoral. I do not believe it is. But neither is it say- 
ing much to say that it is not. What I would ask is, is 
it uniformly above the level of bare morality. That is 
the question for us. You ask whether morality can 
save us ? I say no, you are not saved, if you are no 
higher than that? Arithmetic is mathematics. But 
he is not a mathematician who is no higher than arith- 
metic. We should not be characterized simply by nak- 
ed virtues. Morality is not a very exalted level. It is 
the first level this side of immortality. The Christian 
should be up in the graces. The moral qualities should 
mount up and blend with the affectional. The frankin- 
cense should rise into the fragrance of the myrrh, and 
all go up together, an offering of our whole nature to 
God, like the evening sacrifice. Can we say, to-day all 
this pervades and characterizes the Church ? It perva- 
ded and characterized Christ. How then are we an 
Epiphany of the Son of God ? You see, that Epiphany 
must be perpetual. It must be actual. It is the road to 
the millenium. That which makes this Epiphany is 
the Church, no matter what we think about it. The 
Church is God's star to lead to Christ. The Church is 
that agency which is leading the world up to God, and 
not any agency which the world is leaving behind. 
Whatever is dark is not in it, or of it, whether it be 
mental, moral or spiritual. Whatever is of truth and 
light, is in it, for they are Christ's, and all Christ's is 
God's. 

Now, I do not mean to say, there is more light out- 
side the Church than there is in it. That is impossible. 
There is an old saying, " there is no salvation outside 
the Church." That saying is true. But the Church 
is where salvation is, and nowhere else ; where light 



234 



SERMONS. 



and truth are, nowhere else — where Christ is, and no- 
where else. The true Church has several times gone 
around that which was ostensibly the Church, that 
Church which was standing embalmed in pride and self- 
conceit. It did it in the times of Christ. He passed 
by the Jews. It did it three hundred years ago — we 
passed by the papacy. God grant there never may be 
need of its doing it again. But that it might not be, 
we must understand that God will never stand still with 
us, but that we must find out God, and advance with Him. 
Do you see anything in that you have to do ? I was 
struck with a remarkable sermon from a prominent Jew, 
not long since. He tells us some very unpalatable 
truths. We have had a way of asserting all progress 
as Christian, and the Christian Church as the source of 
modern civilization. He undertakes to prove that nearly 
all progress has been made in spite of the Christian 
Church. He says, so far from forcing progress upon 
the world, progress has been forced upon her. He says, 
every attempt at a free inquiry into anything, has been 
silenced by the Church, that Christians now have a 
kind of fear of philosophical inquiry. He talks of 
Galileo, of the Inquisition, of Smithfield. He asks, 
who denied civil liberty to the Jews, in England and 
elsewhere ? Christians. Who opposed liberty of con- 
science ? Christians. And so through a variety of ques- 
tions — and I confess, that the most painful thing to me 
about it, was, that most of it was true. But he denies 
that Ave have any Christian civilization. Therein he is 
wrong. Who taught men to resist the inquisition ? 
Christ. Who taught the world it was better to die 
than to be submerged in self and wrong ? Christ. Who 
gave the Jews civil liberty ? Christians. Who died 



EPIPHANY. 



235 



for liberty of conscience ? Christians. Who leads the 
van of civilization to-day? Christians — but not any 
sect, I grant you that, thank God for that, but that star 
of God ; and what I want you to see to-day is, that an 
Epiphany of Christ is not a manifestation of any nar- 
rowness, no matter where it is, or what it is. Let 
me ask you, then, in conclusion, have you any wider 
and clearer idea of what you are to do for God, of what 
an Epiphany of your Master is to be ? I am afraid 
that to-day many Christians will be entertained with a 
rehearsal of what the Church has done, of the great 
glory that remains. I too thank God for all that has 
been done. But I feel down in my heart that we have 
not done it. God has done it. We are unprofitable ser- 
vants, and the manifestation that is, is nothing com- 
pared with the manifestation that ought by this time to 
have been. And then, I am afraid, that much will be 
taken for glory which is not glory, and much be praised 
as done, which had better never been done at all ; and 
this is natural enough, for, only once think that you are 
wholly refined and learned, and good, and that is proof 
positive in itself, that you are neither the one nor the 
other. We have a way of talking too much about our 
ecstatic experiences, a way of blazing abroad our good 
deeds. But that is the world's way, not God's way. 
When I look around the world, I feel as if our ideas of 
Epiphany were inverted. As if God wanted beautiful 
churches, and fine music, and splendid ceremonial. All 
that cannot help Christ. The material gold and mate- 
rial frankincense, and material myrrh, could do nothing 
for Christ. They left Him just as poor. They could 
not give Him where to lay His head. The gold of 
apostolic mind, the purity of apostolic life, the sweetness, 



236 



SERMONS. 



and benevolence, and affection of redeemed hearts — 
these brought peace to man and glory to God. It is 
that we need to-day. Most men live in their grosser 
and meaner nature, because they have nothing better. 
Men would not be vulgar, if they could be taught true 
refinement, and men would not be irreligious, if you 
and I could show them the beauty of holiness. We are 
at our wits' ends to find means for building church- 
es, and sending missionaries, and yet we are amazed 
at the small results of the churches we have and 
the missionaries we send. Beloved, we have lamps 
enough, we need only more of the oil of the divine life. 
Not a Christian listening to me to-day, but is a mis- 
sionary. Some of you have golden chances. You can 
preach better sermons than I can, down where there are 
eyes watching, down where there are hearts that are 
aching ; you can manifest the true life. You get it from 
Christ, and to manifest it, is to manifest Him. When 
your thoughts are occupied with high and sacred themes, 
when, in order to attain to the graces which Jesus 
teaches, you forego your worldly interests, and crucify 
your flesh ; when over your life exhales the aroma of 
benevolence and affection, then you are a co-worker 
with God, and are hastening the day of the Eternal 
Kingdom. Thought, to-day, is the solid currency of 
the world, the emblem of nobility, and so if you have 
time to waste, if your mind is uncultured, if you are low 
and selfish in your pursuits, if you know how to watch 
others more than yourself, then you are not a Christian 
at all. The Church has to carry you. Great thoughts 
are beating at the human heart, and you have nothing 
to do with them. You are bringing reproach upon your 
Master. You are a sign-post in the wrong place. You 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 



237 



will not destroy the works of Satan, nor reveal the 
glory of God. You never will see it. It had been 
better for you if you had never been born. Oh ! may 
we all be wise men, may we all be like the Magi — come 
to Christ. Bat be sure of the treasures you bring. If 
you learn of Him, then you can go out and he part of 
the great Epiphany, and yourself have part and lot in 
the glory that remains. Let us learn something from 
the star and the wise men, the incarnate Christ, the 
gold, and the frankincense, and the myrrh. 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 

John 3 : 16, 19. — For God so loved the world that He gave His only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the 
world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth 
in Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already? 
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 
And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved 
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 

This is part of our Lord's discourse with Nicodemus. 
It embraces the whole Gospel in itself. To a mind, not 
preoccupied tvith doctrines and theories, as the mind of 
Nicodemus was, it is peculiarly simple and plain. Nico- 
demus was a Jew and a theologian, like us, bound hand 
and foot with traditions. The feature of Christ's life 
which affected him, was, the fact of miracles. Through 
that, Nicodemus got an inkling that Christ was a teacher 
come from God. He just had vision enough to see that 
Christ's wonder-working differed from that of all others, 



238 



SERMONS. 



chiefly in that it was merciful and beneficent, and so 
commended itself to His moral sense, as worthy of God. 
The feature of Christ's life which most affects us, is 
not His miracles, but the fact that being a Jew, He 
was neither a Jew nor a theologian, His thought was 
neither colored nor distorted by time or place. His life 
was moulded by neither His age, nor His nationality. 
He was human and belonged to mankind. His truths 
were coins which have heaven and God stamped upon 
them. Their substance was not earthly, but spiritual. 
He tvas Himself the greatest of all conceivable miracles, and 
view Him in any light we may, we too can say : " We 
know Thou art a teacher come from God." 

Like the rose, or the morning light, these propositions 
of Christ carry with them their own endorsement. Who 
is God ? God is love. This was news even to the Jew. 
It is news yet to a great many Christians, for simply 
assenting to it, is not by any means the same thing as 
understanding it. It is remarkable that all theologies 
and religions have called God from the depths of their 
darkness, created Him out of their fears and their pas- 
sions. With what light we have had, we have projec- 
ted simply our own shadow, and called it God. Both 
Jew and Gentile, as was natural enough, consulted their 
fears. Not understanding themselves, or nature around 
them, they turned all providence into evil, look upon 
mankind as under a curse, and called God a Judge, re- 
garded Him as an angry being, anxious to destroy rather 
than to preserve. He was a God to be appeased and 
that too by ordinances that were either foolish or deep- 
ly revolting. 

Imagine Christ's words falling there and saying : 
" God so loved the world!' When man has long delved 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 



239 



for the truth, how simple it seems, when at last it comes 
to hirn. If we had truly reasoned, we would have seen 
that wrath, anger, hatred, or any unlove, were really a 
weakness, and therefore impossible in God. They are 
merely the absence of mercy, patience and love. If 
they had looked into the divine dealings with our race, 
they would have seen mercy, restraining and guiding 
love, in them all, an attempt to prevent evil consequences, 
and so to redeem and bless mankind. They would 
have seen that every element in man and every element 
in nature, under the direction of wisdom, under the in- 
fluence of reason, of love, were burdened with divinest 
ministration. All that nature wanted, all that God asked, 
was that man should not be a brute, that he should 
mount up to a recognition of his soul-nature, his true 
man-being. The very point contemplated in his being 
was his recognition of his moral being, his realization 
of soul. It was only as he got away from his fears, his 
passions, his grosser self, that he could find God. What 
he needed was not facts, but the power of seeing them, 
not truth, but the power of perceiving truth. He and 
all other things were so made, that he should find his 
soul level, his moral or spiritual existence. The essence 
of moral being is that the soul find it and accept it. Di- 
vine love and wisdom, God Himself, could not frame 
any other uuiverse or make another moral being. You 
perceive, individual volition creates moral being. Take 
that out and there is no moral being. To have finite 
spirit existence at all, it was needful to have it just as 
it was. There was no unlove whatever in making the 
world as it was and in creating man as he is. It must 
so be, or never be. That lies in the very fact that God 
is God. There is a conception of God — i, e., to say, a 



240 



SERMONS. 



misconception of God, that He can do any arbitrary 
thing, that is, that He might, if He chose, please to do 
anything, irrespective of all law. If that were so, then 
He might some day choose to break His promise and 
forget and forsake us. 

We see, of necessity, the law of truth, forever forbids 
that God should ever break His promise. So God is 
omnipotent under His own law, by and within a law, and 
the world was made, and man made upon it, under the 
law of divine love, and divine wisdom, the best world 
and the best humanity that could by any possibility be 
made, so that in a certain sense, whatever is, is right. 
If consequences, dark and fearful, intervene sometimes, 
still there is no anger anywhere, because that is the 
negative of God, but love everywhere, because like light 
that is the essence of Deity. God is a spirit of positive 
and pure essence. He is transcendently happy and glori- 
fied, because pure spiritual essence can produce nothing else. 
That is what Paul calls "predestination" that is the ul- 
timate end and object of its existence. The kingdom 
of God, used in its spiritual sense, is thus of necessity 
a kingdom of pure souls, or purified souls, souls quick- 
ened by the divine life. Souls without the divine life 
are not partakers of the divine blessedness, but just the 
reverse, and a law of proportion pervades both sides. 
He who is nearest to God, or who has most of the di- 
vine life, is most blest, and he who has least, is most 
unblessed. The soul that has the divine life is in a state 
of salvation and the soul that has it not, is in a state of 
condemnation. 

In creating soul, then, it was needful to create us 
bodies as well, and needful to create us in just such a 
world as ours. The soul-life can be reached only 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 



241 



through the body-life. All being is a sort of inclined 
plane, but because our gross senses cannot mark the 
gradations, they break upon us only at long intervals, 
and so, being appears to be a series of steps rather than 
one continuous plane. These steps again, are sometimes 
so broad and deep, they appear to be, and in reality are, 
to us great planes themselves. The two great planes 
of our being are the bodily and the spiritual. The bod- 
ily plane is our first plane, the gross outward, animal 
plane. It is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, 
not without its own purposes, but still auxilliary to 
higher and ultimate purposes. It has little or no mean- 
ing, except as you contemplate its highest meaning. 
Just as, if you contemplate existence lower than man, 
you find its purest significance only in man himself. 
Why the delicate shades of color, the delicious odors of 
flowers ? Why the fitness in lower animals for our own 
domestic, or economic purposes ? or a thousand other 
things, except as you refer them to a spirit to which 
they can and do minister ? So you get the full mean- 
ing of our bodily plane, when you reach our spiritual 
plane. Paul says, these two " are contrary the one to 
the other." He does not mean, that God made one as 
a hindrance to the other, but only, that to be inside the 
one is to be outside the other. Ignorance, our first es- 
tate, is contrary to knowledge. Vulgarity is contrary 
to refinement. Poverty is contrary to wealth ; the body- 
plane to the soul. The body-plane is negative; the 
soul-plane is acquisition. Negative, in all things, is al- 
ways first. Our bodily plane is the first in order, hence 
it is called " the natural man" Merely in that, the man 
is not a man. It is true there is a soul linked with it, 
but it is an embryotic soul. Its perceptions are unde- 



242 



SERMONS. 



veloped. As the body has been born after laws of its 
own, the soul must be born after laws of its own. Each 
begets after its kind. " That which is born of the flesh 
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." 
Since God is a spirit, and His Kingdom a kingdom of 
spiritual things, we must be born of the spiritual life, in 
order to be in, or of, that kingdom. The lower cannot 
judge, or be participant, in the higher, any more than 
our domestic animals can judge, or be participant, in our 
intellectual and human life. Hence, Christ said to 
Nicodemus : " Except a man be born again," or more 
literally, " except a man be born from above, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God." As the animal senses in a 
babe are unfolded, tiJl the mortal gradually reaches a 
realization of the world in which he is, so the soul-senses 
must unfold, till the immortal reach a realization of the 
eternal world. " You must be born again." 

Now, nothing is wanting to this spirituul development 
any more than anything is wanting to bodily develop- 
ment. Laws pervade all planes of being, only each af- 
ter its kind. There is a fitness, a provision, an adjust- 
ment of all elements. Born into this world, nature, or 
God, provides a food for us, but not only so, provides 
that our little body shall crave that food, and reach out, 
unconsciously it may be, but still naturally to receive 
it. Not only so, but the same laws which bring the 
body, bring also the food to nourish it. So with the 
spirit, its kind of life is provided for it, by the law of 
God's love, called by us the atonement. There is a "law 
of life " revealed to us in Christ Jesus. How that law 
comes, except as everything else comes, out of the love 
of God, we know not. But, "as Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 



243 



be lifted up." By that law, the Spirit of God is with 
every man that is born into the world, says St. John, 
" to light it" guide it, awake it, and set it in conscious 
co-operation with spirit-life, and you may discuss human 
depravity as you please, I contend the soul of man looks 
up for God, just as the flower looks up for the sunlight. 
The fact of a religion of some sort, or degree, upon the 
whole face of humanity, is proof positive that nothing- 
can crush the crying out of man's heart. This is the 
office of the Holy Ghost, to take of the things of Christ 
and reveal them unto us. All these things are of the 
spirit-life. Christ is to us, not only procuring cause of 
spirit life, but illustrative of it; in other words, the 
atonement is not only a removal of death, but a mani- 
festation of divine life, at once like a parent to a child, 
means of support and a pattern of life. He is not only 
the only cause, but he is also the only pattern. Man 
did not know God, does not now know Him. "No 
man hath seen God at any time. He only who is from 
the bosom of the Father hath declared Him." Christ 
said truly of Himself, We speak that we do know, and 
testify that we have seen — nobody else did know or had 
seen. To take anything else for God, is to mistake the 
whole spirit-life, and hence, while God so loved the world 
as to give His only begotten Son, it is only, and of 
necessity must be only, he that believeth on Him that 
can be saved. 

The truth is both beings, t. <?., bodily and spiritual, 
begin at the lowest conceivable point, i. e., they have 
beginning. Its original, normal condition, in both cases, 
is germinal. It is nothing, except so far as it is an em- 
bodiment of capabilities or possibilities. These capa- 
bilities or possibilities, in both cases, are matters of our 



244 



SERMONS. 



own decision, or at any rate, are dependent upon our 
own action. Here you strike moral being, in this self- 
action. The normal intention of nature is a healthy 
body. The normal intention of God is a healthy soul. 
This out of the divine benevolence. What God wishes. 
But it is subject to law, and laws must work, and hence 
we get two senses of the expression, " God's will" — 
what the affection of God yearns for, and what His 
laws determine, two very different senses, and yet sen- 
ses very often confounded. In one sense, God willeth 
not the death of the sinner. In the other sense, He 
will by no means spare the wicked. With respect to 
our bodies, if we live wisely, we develop into health 
and vigor, into all that makes life rich enjoyment. If 
we live unwisely, we simply lose our health. But observe 
what that means. It means weakness, pain, suffering. 
You see the absence of health is not only not enjoying, 
but it is suffering — something, as it were, of a positive 
nature, and, worst of all, as the health goes, it is 
proportionally the loss of ability even to regain it. The 
powers of nature, so to speak, die, and their death is 
pain. It all comes about of transgression, violation of 
law. You call in a physician, for there are redeeming 
agencies in all nature, for this law of life in Christ 
Jesus is only according to universal analogy. You call 
in a physician, but he does not create a single pain. 
He does not reproach the patient. If he is a true 
physician, he is truly sympathetic. His office is one of 
mercy. He would die, and physicians, very often do 
die, to alleviate, not what they create, but what they 
are unable to prevent. The parallel in spiritual things 
is complete. The soul, too, must live by law. In trans- 
gression it dies. From its ignorance, you perceive, if 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 



245 



from nothing else, transgression is natuaal. Transgres- 
sion is sin, and sin is an inevitable fact. Some people 
go off at this point, and create what they call " the 
doctrine of original sin," and there is no objection to 
that, if anybody pleases to do it, only, original sin, you 
observe, is a fact ; but, discuss it as you will, its roots 
lie in the nebula of first causes — into which man can- 
not pry, and whoever undertakes it, will only " darken 
counsel by words without knowledge." All first causes 
are hid from us. There is transgression, or sin, or soul- 
sickness. But observe what that means. In its least 
degree, it is ignorance of God, and that is absence of 
transcendent enjoyment. But it is worse than that. 
The absence of love is the presence of unlove, and that 
means, not simply immorality and vice, which, indeed, 
are very bad symptoms, but it means soul characteristics, 
like enmity, spite, cruelty, revenge — that which turns 
a man into a demon, that which gives us our idea of 
devil, devilishness ; that, whenever you see it, whether 
in Pharisee circles, as you observe it in the Jews in 
Christ's time, or in later times, or in any form of the 
Inquisition, or in fashionable circles, as some of us see 
it every day ; or in trade circles, as it is in gold rooms 
where men curse and cheat each other ; that which is 
selfishness, that which eats joy out of life, that which 
repels mercy and truth, that which creates what men 
have agreed to call a hell. That is hell. You ask me, 
what becomes of these men, what hell is, or where 
hell is. I cannot tell, but there is a hell, a great scorching 
furnace, which you create and feed, and carry with 
you, down in your heart. It burns like fire. It gnaws 
like a worm. It is as if the universe had judged it, and 
condemned it, and cursed it. It is condemnation. 



246 



SERMONS. 



Observe, God does not come down in a thunderbolt 
and crush the soul. No Angel is there to forge a chain 
for it. It has done it all itself, not so much by some- 
thing it has done as by failing to do something it ought 
to have done. The United States Government has not 
condemned the savage Indian upon the plain to his bar- 
barous life. The municipal authorities have not con- 
demned the drunkard, the vile wretches that rob and 
murder each other in the dens of our city. The police 
authorities in New York did not condemn that poor 
woman who went home one morning last week from a 
masked ball and blew her brains out. No, all the forces 
of civilization have for their very object the prevention 
of these very things. There are men and women who 
would die if all these creatures could be redeemed. It 
is of the nature of love, you see, to pity. Only a pure 
soul and an exalted soul could pity them and give itself 
for them. Of all pitying beings God is greatest, He 
sends His Son. The Physician comes. Not to condemn. 
Comes because we are condemned. Comes to write love 
upon every element of being. Comes to inaugurate 
means by which all condemnation may be forever es- 
caped. That is condemnation, to be there, in our unspir- 
itual being, whether we know it or do not know it. To 
perceive the life He brings, to accept Him, to leave 
where and what we are, to put on what Christ is — i. e., 
to repent and believe, is to enter into life, to have sal- 
vation, but to love the darkness, rather than the light, 
is to continue in the condemnation, ruined, lost, and be- 
cause soul-powers die, as well as body-powers, it may 
be, so far as we can see, to be ruined and lost forever. 
And then it so happens, that to get upon a plane, from 
any cause, is very likely to remain there. Somehow, 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 



247 



our antecedents do greatly control our actions. You 
cannot bring the wicked man from his associates or his 
associations. They hold like iron fetters. You cannot 
make the vulgar sensible of the delights of refinement. 
You cannot make the ignorant sensible of the blessings 
of knowledge, nor the ungodly conscious of the joys of 
the redeemed. "The natural man judgeth not the 
things of the spirit of God." "They are foolishness un- 
to him," and so it is, the kind of life, our deeds, or call 
it by what name we will, the life upon which we have 
embarked, whether consciously or unconsciously, is like- 
ly to be our kind of life forever. 

Now let me ask, can you get no definite idea of these 
words of Christ ? " God so loved the world, that He 
gave His only begotten Son," (only God could,) " that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the 
world to condemn the world, but that the world through 
Him might be saved. He that believeth in Him is not con- 
demned, but he that believeth not in Him is condemned 
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the 
only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation 
that light is come into the world and men loved darkness 
rather than light, because their deeds ivere evil." 

Yes, sin is the most unnatural and repulsive theory 
that walks upon the face of the earth, that into which 
you could not possibly get a man to go, if it were only 
possible to show him where it is he is going, that, in 
which of all things upon earth man is the most unfortu- 
nate and most to be pitied. But, what blessing, what 
mercy, what love, what a God ! to come to us ! to tell 
us He does not hate us, that He loves us and cares for 
us ! Oh ! man, did you ever think, how, if you had 



248 



SERMONS. 



been left to me, or to your fellow men, how you had 
been ground down, how a great angry Judge had been 
set over you, how you would have been turned into a liv- 
ing fear, going to heaven not from any love of what God 
is, but from a great dread of what He is not. Do you 
see how religion is, direct communion with God, with 
goodness, not a church routine, another work added to 
that burden which makes life so galling. How blessed 
to know God loves you, that He is willing to give you 
eternal life, that all you have to do is to accept it. You 
cannot buy it, you cannot work it out. You can only 
receive it, and God will give it just as fast as you will 
receive. (< The gift of God is eternal life, and this life 
is in His Son." You are to see that, see the divine 
life that is in Him, what the Saviour calls " believe," 
then you are not condemned. You must be able to say, 
in a deeper sense than that in which Nicodemus said it, 
" I know Thou art a teacher come from God." All your 
intuitions and longings, will feel, that He is the Alpha 
and Omega, not from any theological dixit, but from the 
eternal nature of things. That belief, that Christ is the 
Son of God, and that through Him you are a son of 
God, that belief, not merely an assent of your mind, 
but a conviction that penetrates every tissue of your 
being, a conviction beyond expression, makes you a 
member of Christ, whether you are a member of the 
Church or not. The Church is an artificial association 
of believers. If you have the divine life, you are a 
member of the invisible Church of necessity, and though 
a connection with some branch of the Church visible is 
to some degree imperative, it still is optional. It is not 
what are called "doctrines" that constitute salvation. Doc- 
trines make Churches, and very often ruin souls. Your 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 



249 



believing anything does not make that thing true, does 
not affect the truth at all. So far as truth is concerned, 
it matters not what you believe. So far as you are con- 
cerned, it is of the first importance that what you believe 
is truth. If you do not believe in the Holy Ghost, the 
Holy Ghost can still find you. If you do not believe 
in a hell, that will not keep you out of it. If you be- 
lieve the Church can save, that will not save you. Our 
business is to learn, not to write anything down and say, 
" I believe that." No Church can make a creed for 
even all its own members, because truth crystalizes in 
different ways in different minds. No truth is valuable 
in itself, bat only in its combinations, and because it 
enters not into the same combination in any two minds, 
we have so much trouble in all our Churches, and the 
more truth we get, the more trouble we will have, till we 
get truth enough to know that doctrine is not Christiani- 
ty, and that belonging to any Church is not necessarily 
belonging to Christ. Any truth is infinite, and for that 
very reason its form must change. Any form is but a 
shadow cast before, and forms are therefore valuable. 
Our business is to find out the facts they do foreshadow. 
Christ is not doctrine, except as the greater comprehends 
the less. Christ is a life. 66 Do the will of God," He said, 
" and you shall know the doctrine." " The Spirit of 
God shall guide you unto all truth," not all at once, but 
very slowly. Put Christianity into doctrine and you 
have the Churches, with the world saying, "a pretty 
set of Christians you are indeed." Put Christianity 
into life, into love, into unself, into self-sacrifice, into 
that which is pure, and true, and noble, into a likeness 
of Christ, and the world says you are a Christian, with- 
out asking what Church you belong to. 

Mark how Christ and all good are synonymous. Mark 



250 



SERMONS. 



how the " truth as it is in Jesus" differs from all other 
truth — not that other truth is not true, but of a differ- 
ent kind. Truth as it is in Jesus is true virtue, true 
purity, true love, true life. Did you ever reflect upon 
the remarkable fact, that nobody has ever said that 
Christ was anything else but good ? Even the malig- 
nant Jews had not intelligence enough to bring a charge 
of real evil against Him. They could only bring a 
charge of heresy, as a great many churches would bring, 
if He were to appear among us to-day. Christ was 
God manifested. We know not what God is, but the 
more we know of God, so much the more we see in 
Christ, or the more we see in Christ, so much the more 
we know of God. Calling Him God is not believing Him 
to be God. Mere assent to anything is not belief. Our 
likeness to Him is the only measure of our belief that 
He is God. Belief, or faith, is soul vision, soul vision 
is life. " Without eyes we shall want light." Belief 
in Christ is vision of the soul verities in Christ, so as 
to produce a life in us, a longing after it, " hungering 
and thirsting," as Christ called it. It is obedience to 
God, and trust in God. It is loving God and our neigh- 
bor. It is communing with God, and walking with God. 
It is the reproduction of the Christ-life, the life of faith, 
of prayer, of sacrifice, of love. It is the crucifixion of 
carnality, and the enthronement of spirituality. Our 
victory over the animal or natural plane, is the measure 
of our entrance upon the spirit-plane. All time, all 
providence, this economy of temptation and trial, is de- 
signed to test and demonstrate which plane it is we are 
on. Not to have the upper spiritual, or divine life, is 
to be lost. You observe, it is not simply that we are 
hauled off somewhere, or are cut off from an economy 



THE DIVINE LOVE. 



251 



of usefulness, but that something is lost to us. What 
is lost to us, no mortal can tell you. God is lost to us. 
Heaven is lost to us. An eternal weight of glory is 
lost to us. That is what grieves God. Suppose you 
had an idiot child — how your heart would break in 
thinking of it— so much joy and knowledge cut off from 
it, communion with you all lost. Suppose you contem- 
plate your knowledge or education, whatever it be ; sup- 
pose you contemplate your refinement and culture, what- 
ever it be. Suppose you realize that to lose these would 
make you vulgar and ignorant, could anything upon 
earth induce you to lose them ? You perceive the loss 
of them, would make you lost. 

Now, as compared with God, with the heavens above, 
with holiness, with life — that is where all of us are by 
nature, where so many of us, like the vulgar and igno- 
rant, are contented to remain. How is it with us here 
to-day. You observe, God does not accept you, because 
you are acceptable, but because you desire to be accep- 
table, not on account of your attainments, but on account 
of your progress. He knows how unworthy you are, 
but He can wait. That is His mercy, He will wait, 
and does wait. Christ is advocate. A thousand years 
will be nothing, if they can bring you to all you want to 
be. God will not upbraid you for your unworthiness, but 
the more you can see that unworthiness, so much the 
more will you reach out after Him. That reaching out is 
sanctification — immortal progress. What I want you 
to see, is, that we all have something to do to be saved. 
Not, as so many imagine, that we have something to do 
to be lost. Men feel sometimes, I have never robbed 
anybody, I pay my debts, I never swear, nor drink, nor 
slander my neighbor. All very well, but, salvation is 



252 



SERMONS. 



not what you do not do. What do you know of spir- 
itual things, of the love of Gocl ? How far do you see 
into the things of Christ ? How much like Him are 
you, forgiving, sacrificing? Salvation is not a fixed 
quantity, doled out by a church, limited by a creed. 
It is sanctification, more and more unto the perfect day. 
It is struggle against self, and earth, and our carnal na- 
ture. It is enthronement within us of Christ and God. 

I wish to impress upon you all, a sense of the solem- 
nity of life, that life means something, that it was given 
for a purpose, that purpose growth — that you cannot 
buckle a doctrine around you like a life-preserver, and 
say, "here I am all safe." I wish to impress it par- 
ticularly upon the young. Redeem your time. You 
have a future to frame, an eternity to fix. Your heart, 
your soul, your mind. Christ calls you to Him, to take 
His yoke, because it is easy ; His burden, because it is 
light. Calls you to consecrate your time, with all your 
energies and faculties. You see men sometimes beating 
about, not knowiug which way to turn, and taking, at 
last, just the very thing they ought not to have. Is it 
any wonder, when they have perverted all their powers, 
and wasted all their days ? You cannot gather figs of 
thistles. Sit at Jesus' feet. Hear what He says as a 
message to you from God. Know that God loves you, 
and that if you will only love Him, you shall not enter 
into condemnation, but shall pass from death into life. 



TEE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER. 253 



THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER. 

II Corinthians 3 : 4, 5, 6. — And such trust have we through Christ to 
God-ward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of our- 
selves ; but our sufficiency is of God, Who also hath made us able ministers 
of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter 
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 

St. Paul is here, I suppose, partially defending him- 
self from certain reflections which in one way or another 
had been raised against him and his ministry. The 
people whom he addressed were like all the people of 
his times, like the vast majority of the people of all 
times, blind people. They had been used to certain 
formulas, and to certain rites and ceremonies, in which 
they rested, and which they regarded as the counter- 
parts, or development, or end and object of the form- 
ulas. They had been in the habit of contemplating the 
sources whence the formulas sprung and the channels 
through which they had been handed down, as essen- 
tial adjuncts to the formulas themselves, putting trust 
in man, not realizing that God was the only original 
source, and that any earthly sufficiency came alone from 
Him. Moses himself was only one divine agency, and 
that only to the Mosaic degree. He, advancing from 
the nebulous condition of conjecture and tradition, wrote 
down certain principles or laws, as nearly as it was then 
possible to write them. His people, looking upon the 
Mosaic writings as absolute, failing to see the reality of 
which they were but dim reflections, gave to them an 
outwardness and literalness, which eventually dwarfed 



254 



SERMONS. 



and shriveled the faculties, moral and spiritual, they 
were originally intended to quicken. Christ came, elu- 
cidating, literally fulfilling, the old formulas. The Jews, 
even the Apostles, did not understand Him. St. Paul 
goes out preaching Christ, the spirit above the letter. 
He met an experience similar to that his Master had 
met before him. Those experiences have been repeated 
to some extent in every age and generation since, and 
are being now repeated more universally perhaps than 
ever. 

The very Gospel itself was an exhortation to man to 
awake and arise. It addressed itself to those faculties 
in man, which made him man, as distinguished from 
mere mechanical, animal being, faculties which had been 
dormant, latent, or only rising into life, in rare and dis- 
tant instances. It addresses itself to precisely those 
faculties to-day. The wonder of the Gospel, like the 
wonder of all nature, is, that the more we see into it 
the more we see there is in it. We find it illimitable, 
or if limited to us at all, limited not in itself, but in our 
own want of capacity. The little flower is beautiful even 
to a savage, but transcendently more beautiful to that 
mind which brings to it a knowledge of those laws of 
light by which it was produced. So with every truth 
formula in the Bible; and as no man knows yet all about 
a flower, so no man knows yet all about the Bible. The 
age to which we belong, above all others, begins to real- 
ize this. Men are now asking for truth, of every sort and 
every degree, because it is truth, irrespective of any formula, 
or any authority, merely human. The tendency of the 
ages hitherto has been to tie the race down to what they 
suppose to be reverence, by what most certainly was credul- 
ity. They talked of belief. They meant blind accept- 



THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER. 



255 



ation. We sometimes meet the impression that we are 
putting trust only in man. I think we are everywhere 
refusing to put trust in any mere mortal authority 
whatever. The tendency of our times is, to develop 
man to the degree of self-consciousness and thought. 
The general effect of all tendency hitherto has been that 
of turning men into children. The general tendency 
now is that of turning children into men. Hitherto all 
independence in inquiry has been looked upon with dis- 
trust. The Churches have thought it a thing not to be 
allowed. Our age is impatient of any man who has not 
learned to think, and passes him by as one who, if he 
will not help the race, can hardly claim to be helped by 
the race. Of the two tendencies ours is infinitely pre- 
ferable, but there are dangers in it. Against these the 
Christian above all men should be guarded. The Chris- 
tian not only ought to be, but will be, in the vanguard 
of light. He not only ought to be, but tvill he guide to 
others. That is to he a Christian. 

All around us the formulas and traditions of the past 
seem to be breaking up, like the ice before the advanc- 
ing spring. Men and women, good people too, are every- 
where uneasy and fearful. They hear their creed as- 
sailed, their notions impeached, and, like the Jews of 
old, they are alarmed. They forget that God sitteth 
between the cherubim. They sometimes fear that the 
Bible itself is to be overthrown, set aside, that people 
will get along without any religion. They do not see 
that the Bible is as fixed as mother earth, and that reli- 
gion within us is as essential to our being as the senti- 
ment of love or the nervous system. Such trust have 
we through Christ upon God. Christ demonstrated this 
law to us, that truth, in conjunction with mind, hath 



256 



SERMONS. 



the power a seed hath in conjunction with earth. It 
springeth up into life. In doubting that, we are like 
certain temperance people, who tell us, all men are going 
to take to drinking, singularly forgetting that even fifty 
years ago there was not the beginning of a temperance 
society, or anybody to sound an alarm, that temperance 
societies themselves are therefore proof positive that all 
men are not going to take to drinking. Motion is never 
the sign of death, but of life. If the tendency of our 
age were confined to a sect or locality, even then it 
would be hopeful; but when we find it universal — in 
China, in Japan, in the Jews, in whole nationalities and 
continents ; when we find it in every sect in Christen- 
dom, in every shade of belief — we cannot, or ought not, 
to fail to look upon it as God once more moving upon 
the face of the waters, God taking a larger and grander 
step toward the eternal consummation, the establish- 
ment of order over chaos, the enthronement of man over 
nature, the creation of a being upon earth with whom 
the Creator can commune in spirit and in truth. 

St. Paul realized, as his Master had taught him : 
We are but sowers. All seeds produce after their kind. 
The thing is to see whether we are ministers of the 
new covenant. To be ministers of that is to be minis- 
ters, not of the letter, but of the spirit. This is what 
we are called upon to do, to go clown below the surface, 
to get at the deeper things of God, that our children in 
their turn may be wiser than we. We all of 'us live in 
externals to a vastly greater extent than any of us are 
aware. There is an infinitude in everything beyond 
that we perceive. This manhood, e. g., is not merely 
animal. It is not animal at all. We look sometimes 
upon degraded humanity, a mass of bloated passions and 



THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER. 257 

driveling weaknesses, and say what a thing this human- 
ity is ! That is not humanity. That is animalism with the 
humanity taken out of it, animalism under indulgence 
such as God never intended even for animalism itself, 
animalism in a sphere which animalism alone desecrates. 
Neglect a garden, and you have neither grass nor trees, 
but only weeds. It is true, God has put the animal and 
humanity in conjunction, but humanity is intellect and 
soul, humanity is moral force, is perception of divine 
and eternal things. So nothing upon earth is just what 
it seems to be. Commerce, again, is not simply trade. 
If it is, it is decay and death. Because the nations 
have too often made it an ultimate end in itself, it has 
not failed to make an end of the nations. Commerce is 
civilization. Art is not merely architecture and paint- 
ing. Art is soul-life. It is perception of nature, and 
expression of nature. True art springs from true life of 
its kind, and reproduces after its kind. With respect 
to realities, the great essences that lie beyond the out- 
ward appearances, the wise, the seers in all ages, have 
been endeavoring to give expression. The great moral 
lights, have endeavored to give expression in like man- 
ner, through what we call language, to moral truth. 
Their sayings became formulas, not perfect, but only 
approximate, not realities, but only reflection. Simply 
to rest in them is not to perceive them at all. To mis- 
take them is to defeat their very purpose, to turn into a 
millstone round our neck, what was intended as a vehi- 
cle to help us to glory. A wise man in attempting to 
give expression, or as we call it, definition, to this thing 
we call man, said " man was the only animal that con- 
trolled fire" To this a blind man remarked, " that it 
was not true, for on a given occasion where a fire had 



258 



SERMONS. 



been left on a shore by some travellers, the monkeys 
had kept the fire going by placing sticks upon it, as they 
had seen the travellers do," a remark which proved he 
had not the remotest conception of what the wise man 
meant. The control of fire does not mean merely the 
placing sticks upon a fire already built, but it means all 
that can be accomplished by man aided by fire. It 
means everything from the finest needle to crystal gob- 
lets and porcelain vases, everything from cotton spin- 
dles to locomotives, and steam engines. It means 
things of which we yet have no conception, because any 
truth is an infinity. The truth is one thing. An ex- 
pression of truth is another thing. The letter is one 
thing. The spirit is another. To rest in the letter is 
to die. To catch the spirit is to be quickened. 

That is what Paul means. Be not like that man. 
Every expression in the Bible is the husk of an endless 
truth. Open it, enter in, and live. You begin then to 
see what language itself is. We say it is the sign of 
ideas. It is much more frequently the sign of the want 
of ideas. At any rate at best, it is but a sign. There 
is nothing in the arbitrary sound, or the arbitrary form 
which necessarily conveys our idea. 

A Greek text is the same thing to the illiterate as no 
text at all. The French, the German, the English, can 
only be understood so far as we learn and accept what 
the French, and German, and English, respectively, 
mean. Any language is but a conventional currency, a 
thing by means of which we agree to effect certain 
exchanges. It is a currency without a specified value. 
Its value to you is never that of the person imparting 
it, but only that you yourself are able to give it. To 
us the word meat would mean flesh. In certain parts 



THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER. 



259 



of England, and some of the provinces, it would mean 
grass as well. It is used in that sense in the Bible. 
" He giveth to all their meat." Nature and life, and the 
Bible, never respond to any man, except in voices the 
man himself evokes. It is so with everything. The 
wild Indian absorbs only the worst part of our civili- 
zation, i. <?., he absorbs only our uncivilization. When 
foolish people go to Europe, they pick up nothing but 
mere folly. When the ignorant immigrant lands upon 
our shores, he asks not for our schools, our thought, our 
culture, but only for such things, too much of which he 
has had already at home. You select from life, not what 
you most need, but according to what you carry to life. 
Hence, we never can convey our ideas, except up to 
the capacity of the person to whom we are imparting 
them. You cannot tell your child all you know. Hence 
the Jews misunderstood Christ. Hence these Corin- 
thians misunderstood St. Paul. Hence we are always 
misunderstood, and forever misunderstanding each other. 
Hence the fearful quarrels and wrongs which kept this 
life seething and boiling. A lamp is of no use to a 
blind man. All the light possible for you, is in the 
capacity of your own eye. Hence the extreme im- 
portance of teaching people to think. Hence the ex- 
treme importance of reaching the brain and the heart, 
rather than the ear and the eye. The one killeth, the 
other giveth life. Every man's horizon is limited by 
his own hight. To tie him up in sect, in formula, is to 
keep him a child. Hence, no man's criticisms of another 
man, of any truth, of his times and the movement of 
his times, can be higher than the man. If you would 
know what any man's opinions are worth, you must, 
first of all, know the man. The teaching and preaching 



260 



SERMONS. 



of anything, is not so dependent upon the teacher and 
the preacher, as upon the hearer. The Jews went to 
Christ to trip Him in His word. We read people's 
opinions to see where they differ from ours, not so much 
with an object of mending our own, as of finding a handle 
with which to complain of theirs. Christ invariably 
recognized this. When He began to speak, and when 
He closed His speech, He said it was addressed only to 
those who had an ear to hear. They w T ere all that could 
hear, and that is the extent of any man's hearing. Old 
things then, as now, were passing away. All things 
were becoming new. Then, as now, there was no rea- 
son why the old formulas and creeds should not be left 
behind. Not that they had no truth in them, but that 
men should go on to perceive the truth beyond them. 
So, to-day, if you have been living in the letter, and 
desire to live there forever — the signs of the times can 
bring you no hope, and fill you with no joy. Those 
words of Christ, " Be of good cheer, I have overcome 
the world," can have for you no meaning. You do not 
see how Christ has overcome the world. But if you 
have the spirit, you know God is coming closer to man, 
and that the present is big with the glory of the future. 
If you know how to think, and catch the spirit above 
the letter, you will be safe and blessed. " Whosoever 
hath, to him shall be given." 

This answers the question, then, so often asked, 
" Can truth ever change ?" You see the answer. Truth 
never changes. God's foundations, what we call funda- 
mentals, remain forever. Our measure of it must always 
change, unless we would be forever dead. Nature every 
day is changing her forms, and because she is forever 
exchanging, nature is forever life. Perhaps it is the 



THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER, 



261 



destiny of truth to be forever assuming new forms. 
Truth is not only infinitely elastic, but infinitely com- 
pounded. As I remarked last Sunday, no truth is valu- 
able simply in itself. It is valuable according to its 
combinations. You must be forever assimilating new 
truth, as you are every day assimilating new food. Stop 
the process and you die. The race is as one man, and 
so there is forever progress, and forever change. It is 
so not only in religion, but in all the great facts of our 
economy. Wealth was once cattle and clothes, pea- 
cocks and apes, pearls and fine linen. Now it is bonds 
and consols, stocks and factories. The lesser is included 
in the greater ; the old is in the new, but the new was 
not in the old. Art was once pyramids and sphinxes 
and temples. Now it is locomotives and spindles. Once 
it was Madonnas and saints. Now it is Niagara and 
the Rocky Mountains, the Yosemite Valley and photo- 
graphic production. The fundamentals of wealth and 
of art cannot and have not changed ; they never do 
change ; they always bear the same relations to life ; 
but the form is changing every day. A merchant of 
the middle ages could not understand even the terms of 
modern commerce, any more than a warrior of the mid- 
dle ages could fight with the weapons of modern war- 
fare. But the essence of commerce and war has not 
changed. The form has passed away ; the spirit abideth. 
So with what we call comfort, so with even life itself ; 
the forms and accessories are always changing, the thing 
itself abides. All changes have for their object the in- 
crease of the reality, and in the aggregate succeed. It 
is folly to imagine that the ages past were better or hap- 
pier than our own. 

Now some of you ask whether we can never know 



262 



SERMONS. 



anything. I would say, " Yes ; we may always know 
most certainly that we do not know anything." The 
error of the past has been that we have pronounced 
definitely upon subjects that we certaiuly knew very 
little about. Salvation itself has been fixed, as if some 
of us had surveyed it with a chain and compass. The 
most hopeless feature of the prospect before us to-day 
is, the unflinching blindness which accepts things be- 
cause we are told them. Go into the rank and file of 
any Christian denomination and you will find the grand 
reason for their belief to be that their sect believes it. 

There are Christian Churches, so-called, in which the 
clear assertion of a great truth would create a panic, in 
Mexico, in Ireland, possibly nearer home. In India, in 
Constantinople, in Rome, the blinder a man is the bet- 
ter believer he is. In other words, you will find they 
do not believe at all. If you are a wise man, if your 
spirit burns with Christian impulse, you will understand 
those expressions which tell us Christ had compassion 
upon the multitudes. How His divine accents struck 
Jewish superstition with alarm, but how His sympa- 
thetic heart grieved over their blindness. You will ask 
how the germs which are certainly in man, can be 
caused to shoot into divine development, but you will 
see it never can be by refusing to use the noblest facul- 
ties with which God has endowed us. The position of 
asking for the truth for the truth's sake, is the most 
hopeful the race can reach. All liberation is in it. 
Every blessing of the past or present, exhaustless riches 
of the future, are there. Peace upon earth is in it, good 
will among men. Without it, we are cannon loaded for 
each other's destruction. With it, we are trees laden 
with each other's life. Only take for granted it is our 



THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER. 263 

neighbor who is in ignorance and error, and there is in- 
stant repulsion. Take for granted we are in ignorance 
and error, and there is instant attraction. Yes, only 
take for granted you are the only favored of God, and 
you will assume the prerogatives of the Almighty. 
Take for granted you are helpless and needy, you will 
look to God in faith and reverence, and all divine pre- 
rogative will distil upon you in blessedness and peace. 
Once get a man to loving truth for its own sake at any 
cost, and you place that man in direct communion with 
God. For this, God intended us. To this, Christ and 
the Gospel introduced us. To this, I think all the 
truths wrapt up in denominational forms, are bringing 
us. I do not regret denominational forms. The only 
thing that is wrong in sect, is sectarianism. Church 
authority, the greatest misfortune perhaps that ever 
settled upon man, cannot choke thought. When men 
tell you faith is dying, they mean their blind au- 
thority is dying. They mean faith is truly begin- 
ning to live. Put a thought into a heart now, and 
no mitre can smother it, no crosier can reach it. If 
it be worthless, it lives as long as any little life it 
may have will last, and then dies. If it be truth, a 
grand QEcumenical Council, grander than that at Rome, 
proclaims it, and it goes forth in all the vitality with 
which God has clothed it. One thing the great abund- 
ance of Christian machinery has done for us, is to teach 
us the little reliance to be placed in any machinery. 
We are trusting more to truth, to man, to God. We 
begin to realize that Christ lives, that movements come 
when God orders them and that it becomes us, not to 
resist, but to learn. The world to-day is not asking 
whether we are of Paul, or where Paul got his authori- 



264 



SERMONS. 



ty, but saying as Paul said : Be the authority what it 
may, ye are witnesses, epistles, " written not with ink, 
but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of 
stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." This also 
hath Christianity accomplished. This is part of its glori- 
ous work. Only this work must be more, and the 
glory more. The work of Christianity is this very 
work of guidance. Christ is the creator of new force. 
The work of the Christian is to be the radiator of that 
force. The form of Christian work, like all other form, 
must change. In the early age it was the simple pro- 
clamation of bare historic fact, — the incarnation, the 
death and resurrection of Christ, the releasement from 
Judaism and Paganism. To-day it is the proclamation 
of all that the incarnation included, the unfolding of 
those forms in which Christ left His revelation, the 
bringing out into actual life, universal life, the precious 
life of the Son of G od, the bringing it not merely to a 
few, but to the many, curing the leper, unstopping the 
ears of the deaf, and opening the eyes of the blind, not 
only raising the dead, but loosing the grave clothes 
themselves, and setting us free in that blessed liberty 
wherewith Christ alone sets free. It takes more to be 
a Christian to-day than it ever did before, and one thing 
that grieves me is, men outside the Church, men of 
thought, men of culture, point to so much of so-called 
Christian life, point to sectarian narrowness and bigotry 
and ignorance, and ask if that is Christianity. One 
thing that grieves me, is, Christ is still wounded in the 
house of His friends. 

Some of you tell me, "This is making Christianity a 
difficult thing." No, my friend. You are only speak- 
ing out of your misconception, of which I was speaking 



THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER. 



265 



just now. It is only making it, not the thing you have 
been supposing it to be. You ask, " Who can attain to 
all this ?" Nobody can attain to it, if they spend their 
divine faculties on the decorations of a hat, or the elabor- 
ations of Parisian fashions, or the contemplation of rail- 
road stocks. Everything begets after its kind. If you 
sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind. Nobody can 
attain to it who is governed by laws that come from 
France and New York, and know nothing of laws that 
come from God ; nobody who can waste time and energy 
upon the mere signs of life, and dwell in ignorance of 
life itself. This is our misfortune : even when we do 
begin to see, how long it is we see only trees, as men, 
walking ; how long before these dull orbs can gaze upon 
the glories of God in all the charms of unveiled sight. 
I do not say there is nothing in forms, for the form of 
much so-called Christian life proclaims there is no life 
in it. The real creed of too many of us is, that faith 
means earthly enjoyment, and that it is easy to enter 
the Kingdom of Heaven. What is that Kingdom ? 
Have you ever reflected upon what Christ said, that the 
Kingdom of Heaven was within you ? Have you ever 
thought that there is no more Heaven for you than you 
are capable of receiving ? St. Paul says, not as our 
translation hath it, the natural man cannot receive the 
things of the Spirit of God, but the gross man, the man 
buried in the things of time and sense, the sensual man, 
cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. Were 
I to preach to you a sermon to-day against the pomps 
and vanities of the world, you would say, as is so often 
said, "Yes, these ministers must be at their trade." 
But do you see that the pomps and vanities of the world 
are only the graves of mind and heart and soul, that 



266 



SERMONS. 



they are not wrong, so much as that they proclaim you 
are right ? You talk of going to Heaven. What 
Heaven ? You think it is easy to enter. Did Christ 
say so ? Around you are glorious visions, if you could 
see them, and eternal facts, if you could know them, 
and angelic experiences, if you were worthy. 

" Children of grace hare found 
Glory begun below." 

And if you find not that glory here, you never will find 
it in any hereafter. Every fact is only a result. Hea- 
ven itself is only development. 

" The Hill of Zion yields 
A thousand sacred sweets, 
Before we reach the golden fields 
Or walk the sacred streets." 

And the streets and fields above are never trodden by 
unwilling or unhallowed feet. 

The thought, then, I would leave with you to-day is 
the thought that religion means culture ; life means 
growth; Heaven means spiritual glory, the vision of 
God. Upon you that are young, I would like to impress 
that thought. You have years; you have strength; 
you have opportunities. To-day as every day, I would 
ask you to come to Jesus. He hath the words of eter- 
nal life. I would ask you if, through what I have said, 
you cannot understand much that He said ? " Strive to 
enter in," if you cannot see the force of that earnest life, 
that pleading, patient, hopeful spirit. I would ask you 
to reflect upon the meaning, the spirit, of such words as 
prayer, meditation, thought, communion with self and 
with God. You will see that you must give up either 
a thoughtless life or a hope of Heaven, one or the other. 
You cannot serve God and mammon. You will serve 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 



267 



one or the other. I would say, Come to this Bible. 
There is more upon every page than any eye hath seen, 
much your eye can see. Through what I have said, 
hear its echo. " Set your affections on things above, 
not on things on the earth." " The Kingdom of Heaven 
is not meat and drink, but peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost." 

And, one and all of us, What are we living for ? To 
what extent are we believers, to what extent disciples, 
scholars of Him who was the Son of God, whose life, 
whose doctrine, whose very Gospel is an exhortation to 
be in deed and in truth the children of the Highest ? 
May God give us grace to come to Him, and, coming, 
give us vision to see, faith to know most certainly, that 
He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life ever- 
lasting ! 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 



Matthew 4 : 1. — Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness 
to be tempted of the devil. 

You readily recognize this passage as introductory to 
the record of Christ's great temptation in the wilder- 
ness. The whole three and thirty years of Christ's life 
constitute what He gave for us men, and for our redemp- 
tion. But He was now about to enter upon that part 
of His life more particularly called His public ministry. 
He had just been baptized of John, at the Jordan, where 
a miraculous testimony had been given as to His per- 
son, His character, and His office. A definition of Him, 



268 



SERMONS. 



so to speak, had been made. From this scene He is 
carried, still by divine influence, into the wilderness to 
be tempted of the devil. This temptation embraced 
three prime elements. First, " Command that these 
stones be made bread." Second, " The pinnacle of the 
temple." Third, " All these kingdoms will I give thee 
if thou wilt fall down and worship me." 

The w T hole of this temptation, being, in itself and in 
its circumstances, extraordinary, what we might call 
miraculous, it is impossible for us in all respects to ex- 
plain it. How Satan could approach Christ, how his 
propositions could be presented to the mind and spirit of 
Christ, we cannot tell. But if Christ were the Son of 
God, the Messiah, promised of all ages, the Great 
Redeemer of a fallen race, we can conceive a sort of 
necessity for His being subjected to such a test. Mar- 
vellous as the temptation is, more marvellous, indeed, 
would its absence be. The fact that He was subjected 
goes far to prove He was all He claimed to be. It gives 
us a deeper confidence in the super-human nature of 
His mission, and in the inspiration of His whole life- 
record. We may regard it as a demonstration, that if 
our Gospel were a merely human fabrication, this temp- 
tation had never been found in it. Not that it is not 
naturally there, but that man in his speculations upon 
divine things, and especially so at the time the Gospel 
was written, is forever only speculation, and therefore 
unnatural. The wilderness and the Jordan supplement 
each other. From highest heights and lowest depths — 
from Christ's whole being, divine and human, from 
heaven, earth, and hell, come one testimony — Christ is 
Emmanuel, a Son of Man, who is Son of God. 

It must be observed, that this temptation stands at 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 



269 



the threshold of Christ's avowed work, of His official 
life, so to speak. Stress must also be laid upon the 
fact that it was a temptation. It is true, our words 
temptation and trial have a common origin, start from the 
same germinal thought. Together they express that 
which gives proof of our moral being, that which de- 
fines the amount of true moral being within us. But 
they are different things. They are rather the two sides 
of one thing. They act upon different elements. Temp- 
tation appeals to our weakness. Trial appeals to our 
strength. Temptation attempts to reduce us by sur- 
render. Trial attempts to reduce us by storm. Temp- 
tation comes with a bribe. Trial comes with a threat. 
If we yield to a temptation, and accept its reward, we 
have gained nothing, for we have lost ourselves. If 
trial shall strip us, and at last crucify us, we are more 
than conquerors, for we are forever glorified. We may 
always distinguish between temptation and trial by ob- 
serving the elements of which they are composed. We 
are in temptation when we are inclined tozuard a thing, 
which the moral sense within us tells us to be wrong. 
We are in trial when we are under providences, from 
which all that is carnal and earthly within us prompts 
us to escape. In temptation we are attracted. In trial 
we are repelled. They are the centrifugal and cen- 
tripetal forces of moral being. They create what we 
call the antagonism between the flesh and the spirit. 
The spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh against 
the spirit. What we would we ought not — what we 
ought we cannot, as much as we would. " But they that 
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh." 
They occupy two wholly different planes. Temptation 
moves upon our baser nature, upon all that is temporary 



270 



SERMONS. 



and sensuous. Trial moves upon our diviner nature, 
upon all that is eternal and spiritual. The one leaves 
us stranded down with the husks and swine. " That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh." The other exalts 
us to communion with God in the abodes of the glo- 
rified. " That which is born of the spirit is spirit." 
We have reached the plane of true trial only when we have 
crossed forever the plane of temptation. We find God 
only when we have renounced the world, the flesh, and 
the devil. " They that are in the flesh cannot please 
God. He passes the temptation plane before he enters 
fully upon the trial plane. Hence it is only the sons 
of God, and pre-eminently the Son of God, on whom 
trial is laid, and the measure of service is the measure 
of trial, and because His service was to be transcen- 
dently greatest, both His temptation and His trial were 
transcendently severest. 

Out of this, then, we evolve somewhat the necessity 
that the Son of God should be tempted. It was need- 
ful that He should be strong, not that He was hedged 
about by any power which no temptation could reach ; 
not in that He was ignorant of the forces of darkness ; 
but He must be strong in that He can resist every form 
of attack, strong positively and strong negatively. He 
must not be great because He sits merely at our end of 
the universe, but great because He covers all there is 
of the universe, because there is no part of it over which 
He is not supreme. The first Adam was innocent so 
long as he was ignorant. The second Adam is inno- 
cent, not merely because He touches eternal heights, but 
because He has sounded eternal depths ; not because 
some force has left Him alone, but because He has for- 
ever subjected all forces. As such He is the repre- 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 271 

w 

sentative of the human race in the higher life, as the 
first Adam was the representative of the human race in 
the lower life. Upon Him, too, all the laws of good 
and evil are to act, just as they act upon us. His temp- 
tation is but the condensed reality to which the human 
race was, has been, and is subjected ; the reality be- 
neath which the human race failed, which failure makes 
it a race fallen and lost, the reality against which the 
Son of Man triumphed — triumphed, that as death was 
in Adam so life might be in Him. He is our forerunner. 
Hence the value of the manhood of Christ. He trod 
the pathway alone, but treading it, He opened it, and 
marked it, for us. Yes, my friend, if you have not hold 
upon Christ in this dark world, or, better still, if Christ 
have not hold of you, I know not what life can be to 
you, or how you can live at all. Overcoming these, He 
showed the result of victory, escape from the devil, an- 
gels ministering to us ; overcoming these, He goes out 
to a divine life, a divine service, to which He invites 
us, the success of which He assures us, the necessity of 
which He demonstrates, if we would be sons of God, 
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Him. 

" He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness." 
You will observe it is no part of God's plan that we 
should escape temptation. We sometimes say, how 
mysterious it is, God should have created us such be- 
ings in such a world. But from what has been said, you 
perceive the necessity of such a being if there would 
ever be any moral beings at all. It would have been 
much stranger if we had not been so created and in such 
a world. You perceive what a true moral being is, that 
from which the idea of all that is mechanical, or acci- 
dental, or without intrinsic or inherent merit, is exclud- 



272 



SERMONS. 



ed. You read of Heaven, of a Kingdom of God. You 
see it is not something which is arbitrarily created, but 
a Kingdom of pure soul, a Kingdom the arena of action 
for moral and spiritual glory. But for just that life of 
Jesus, that life of temptation and trial, you could have 
had no high conception of the truly divine, so unless you 
partake of that life, you can have no part in the Kingdom 
of true Glory. "You must be born from above." It is 
this life of temptation and trial which defines for us 
what man is, not an animal, not a devil, not merely for 
time. Through it you arrive at spirit, at moral being, 
at immortality. You perceive what it is to believe, 
what it is to believe in Christ, what faith is, how, as I 
once explained it to you, it is soul-vision. 

We are in a wilderness. Take man and view him 
merely with reference to abundance of bread, with refer- 
ence to time and the powers of earth — take him as the 
center of this strange economy upon which we are cast, 
and life is to our souls what a wilderness is to our 
bodies. Admit that all the faculties man has were in- 
tended merely to feed him sumptuously and cloth him 
in purple and fine linen — still what is he ? Take those 
who have so lived, those who have been successful, 
those who have tried the experiment Christ declined. 
Take what we call the kings of the earth. How many 
kings, of all that have ever lived, challenge the admira- 
tion of their race? You might count them all upon 
your ringers, but even of those, what is it that challenges 
our admiration? It is not their palaces, nor their power, 
nor their abundance, nor their pomps. It is an element 
above that, an element of mind, of something we call 
humanity, a something which nothing earthly can buy 
and with which nothing earthly can compare. Take 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 



273 



Solomon, who thinks to-day of his ivory or his peacocks? 
The queen of Sheba did not see the true glory of Solo- 
mon; and if he is still a king is it in the abundance of 
the things he possessed ? Nay, who are the kings of the 
earth ? Lord Bacon is to-day more a king than any 
Plantagenet, and the only wonder about is that he was 
a lord. The great rejuvenating forces are forever spring- 
ing up from the roots of humanity. Christ was described 
as a root out of a dry ground. What makes Britain ? 
Is it her army, her navy, her commerce, her manufac- 
tories. Then what makes these? Is it her colleges, her 
science, her literature, her fine arts ? Take out her brave 
hearts that have dared, and clo dare, to stand up for 
right, for justice, for truth, for liberty, and where is 
Britain ? Is any nation upon earth great without these? 
And yet here you reach an altitude altogether beyond 
all that is sensuous and earthly. You have attained to 
a height beyond all that is animal, something which 
alone is human, something too that is divine. 

Beside all that, clo the people destitute of the higher 
element, possess most of the lower ? Do the Indians 
upon the Plains wring from nature a better subsistence 
than we have in our civilization ? Do the tribes of Af- 
rica enjoy a better life than the people of Germany ? 
Do you not see, that it is only in the possession of the 
higher that you can at the same time possess the lower ? 
Do you not perceive that to have only the animal life, 
is of itself to fail ? Do you not see written all over 
life the great thought, that the real forces are, after all, 
the moral forces ? That man cannot even manage his 
civil, commercial, and social greatness without it — that 
if he undertake it, weakness, just at the very point 
where strength is essential, brings the whole fabric in 



274 



SERMONS. 



confusion about his ears, how, in fact, anything that 
may be called a fabric is impossible ? how, when you 
come to run the thought through life as it spreads out 
before you, you have in certain circles failure, collapse, 
disappointment, or what we call by other words dishon- 
esty, fraud, self-seeking — how such beings are really 
not the friends of their race, and how at last for what- 
ever degree of success they may have attained, for 
whatever time they may have been able to stand, they 
are indebted to the sons of God — how, for whatever 
we may have, we are dependent at last upon the higher 
life, the family, trade, art — dependent upon schools and 
morals and science, and the whole thing upon religion ? 
I would give much for the power to impress that thought 
upon you. I would give more for the power to stimu- 
late you toward all that thought to inspire. 

Now, this is precisely what the devil is forever aim- 
ing at, to keep us in our dwarfed and animal being. He 
helps nothing so much as the accumulation of earthiness, 
in any of its forms, because it is the sure ruin of all 
heavenliness. The three elements of this Christ-temp- 
tation, are the three essentials of all temptation. When 
conscious life first dawns upon us, when aspiration first 
awakes, we gaze and behold we are in a wilderness, i. e., 
where food for man is not spontaneous. The wants of 
these bodies, because our lowest wants, how natural 
that Satan should come there first. He says to us, 
" command that these stones be made bread." He sets 
up these bodies in one clamorous claim for recognition 
and gratification. He clothes us in a fear, lest some day 
should come in which there would not be enough to 
sustain life, without asking us whether such an empty 
life were worth the saving. He starts out the young 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 



275 



with that idea, the idea of an establishment. He keeps 
them at that endless and impossible problem, Turn earth 
into bread. Mark the significance of the first command 
of God to Adam, " Thou shalt not eat." How simple ! 
But how wonderful that it should be as needful to-day ! 
Thou shalt not drink, thou shalt not drown all that is 
divine within thee, in that which is sensuous and carnal. 
Do that, and you of necessity go out to a being with 
every heavenly ray extinguished. You make earth a 
desert. You leave yourself a prey to all ills and woes. 
In the day that thou doest it, thou died. Mind sleeps, 
and soul sleeps, and heart sleeps. In the slumber of 
these, man is dead. The absence of the higher is the 
absence of the lower as well. If man has a power over 
nature, it is only as he is man, only as he is not animal. 
If the five barley loaves and two small fishes are to be 
in this wilderness more than enough, it is only as we 
are sons of God, able to command and be obeyed. Sink 
him into the animal, and all that the earth can produce 
for him is thorns and briars. He must take his chances 
with other animals. His weapons of defence are de- 
fenceless. His level is low. Nature is his equal, and 
in the aggregate, more than his equal. All time attests 
this; yet, there is man still beating at the same old 
problem. 

And indeed, Satan seldom needs to go beyond it. He 
is a hard worker, but he never does any unnecessary 
work. What we call wicked life is no temptation to the 
wicked. How natural it seems, they practice it greedily. 
You see, if you stop anywhere, at Satan's bidding, he 
is your master. You yield, and your life-struggle is 
done. Life to you is no struggle. You shrug your 
shoulders when you look upon real men and see the 



276 



SERMONS. 



troubles they have to go through, and chuckle over your- 
selves that you are free. But, who is the gainer ? I do 
not mean to say you have not to work, but your work is 
nowhere off your own level ; just there you must grind. 
You have no agency in the grand things of God, no part or 
lot in the heritage of a son of God. The well being of 
others is no concern of yours. The safe-guards of soci- 
ety — all that gives you liberty and safety, you enjoy the 
very facilities by which your work is done, the offspring 
of toiling brains, results the costs of which are written 
in aching hearts, and sacrificed lives; they are eliminated 
from your thoughts. As the Psalmist said, they are 
not plagued like other men. They come in no misfor- 
tune like other folk. Their sensibilities slumber. They 
are not up on the life-plane of trial. With all your 
work the world is not indebted to you, but you to the 
world. You are its pensioner, not its benefactor. You 
are the borrower not the lender — not the force that car- 
ries, but the burden to be carried ; not the feeders, but 
the eaters. Can you accept the position ? I do not say 
you have nothing to do. You have a great deal to do. 
Your work is heavy — a wise man could not carry it. 
Ignorant of the high moral forces, living where high 
moral forces are not. You have to carry a weight of 
fear and vigilance, to keep what you have. Not that 
you exactly want it. You know before your shoes are 
cold, somebody will be after it. Your grandchildren 
will never touch it. Satan has cheated you. You have 
commanded stones to be made bread, but what of it ? 
You cannot eat it. Death stands there at the end of 
your journey, and what a grim shadow death is ! I 
cannot linger here, but I say there Satan hath prevailed 
with multitudes, and you can see them all along in life, 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 



277 



stranded and ruined. The command is made to you. 
Shall you be cheated by it ? 

But some do not surrender at the first challenge. 
Perhaps the majority of men pass somewhat on to the 
workings of the second element. It must be, that all 
men think sometimes of their souls, and try to take 
some sort of a stand worthy of their immortality. " He 
carries him to the pinnacle of the temple." 

I say mark the fact that Christ was the avowed Son 
of God. This tempation comes to those who stand out 
to be sons of God. He carries Him to the pinnacle of 
the temple. It is a strange place for Satan to take any- 
body. But all that is outward, all that is showy, no 
matter what we call it, all that is shadowy, even though 
it be symbolic of divinest relation, is approachable by 
Satan. He comes up to ivorship even with the sons of 
God. His object is to make us rest in ordinances, to 
turn religion into form and ceremony, to make us hypo- 
critical and Pharisaic, to give us, instead of God's pre- 
cious truth in Christ, the wretched theologies and creeds 
of men, to turn everything still into that which is out- 
ward and temporal. He stands beside us in the con- 
templation of our loftier being, brings before us, not 
God, but ourselves, not that which is above us, but 
that which is below us, plays upon the strings of our 
selfishness, our pride, paints before us the consoling 
messages, the smooth things, things intended beyond all 
doubt for the sons of God. But he says : " See how 
high you are, how safe you are." You are at once the 
companion and the care of angels. The whole power 
of omnipotence is pledged to sustain and guard you. 
If you trace religious developments, if you examine his- 
tory you will find this delineated in every system that 



278 



SERMONS. 



ever set up to be a religion. The Hindoo, the Moslem, 
the Romanist, every sect, upon earth, what a sense of 
security, what a disposition to seclude, what a practice 
of excommunication ! what impious confidence in limi- 
ting salvation to itself ! It all comes from the devil. 
You see, the proposition of Satan is true enough. The 
Son of God is secure. There is no doubt about that. 
The insinuating fallacy is, the taking for granted that 
we are the sons of God. You see this fallacy sometimes, 
when we select out all the sweet and precious passages 
from the Bible, and turn all the rest over to somebody 
else. You see this in that thing which clings sometimes 
to professors of religion, spiritual pride, the worst disease 
that ever affected a soul. 

Upon that pinnacle of the temple, you are in a dan- 
gerous place. Hold on the faster in humility and rev- 
erence and godly fear. You have entered upon no 
child's play, your work is no holiday sport, God is not 
mocked. Take heed lest you fall. New relations in- 
volve new obligations, the higher the position and power 
the higher the responsibility — position is nothing but a 
snare, unless there be with it a corresponding moral 
power. It is in vain we have escaped the turning of 
stones into bread if in a delirium of spiritual pride we 
fall to tempting the Lord our God. God will not hold 
him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. If we con- 
template the Church, does it not seem indeed as if we 
had forgotten that to have changed our places is not 
necessarily to have changed our natures. Do we re- 
alize that to have broken away from the old Egypt is 
not necessarily to have entered the promised land ? 
Where are the graces and virtues, yes, the struggles 
and trials which ought to characterize the children of 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 



279 



God ? Do we not seem to the world often to be the 
easiest and most self-complacent of mortals? Do we not 
ourselves often see men who, in a profession of religion, 
have not so much a new nature as a new degree of their 
old nature, men who have not put on the new Adam, 
but a new degree of the old Adam, men not so much 
dissatisfied with the world as they are satisfied with 
themselves, who have religion enough to make them 
pray, but not religion enough to make them honest and 
useful and meek and merciful; whom in short, the Church 
has to cany, and who are like the earthy a portion of 
that burden which the true children of God have at last 
to bear. Can you be one of them ? Can I be one of 
them? The pinnacle of the temple? When we contem- 
plate it in its great assumption, its pride of place, and 
name and appearance, doing its own petty will, we can 
feel it is a dangerous place. There is need of angels 
then, and that Scripture, the Saviour used, comes back 
to us, double-edged and keen. " Thou shalt not tempt 
the Lord thy God." Religion is no sham, no make be- 
lieve, and, if the wicked cannot enter heaven, neither 
can they who are without holiness see the Lord. 

But what shall we say of this third element ? There 
is upon earth a line of action peculiarly and emphatical- 
ly called worldliness. It is not a line of temperate, 
noble and holy purpose, but of action, begotten of what- 
ever there is in us which is carnal and sensual. In its 
highest and best manifestations it is so close upon the 
line of nothing, we never ask respecting it, " where is 
the good of it ?" but only, "where is the harm?" It 
never rises, in any of its degrees, into positive useful- 
ness and wisdom. Every degree of it, is from the plane 
of nothing, downward into wrong and darkness. It is 



280 



SERMONS. 



the unchallenged arena of what are technically called 
"high life" and "low life," for extremes often meet. 
Hence it is often the culmination of the other two 
temptations, one turning stone into bread, furnishes 
the means, and the other, the pinnacle of the temple, 
makes it respectable. But mark, how it is all yet upon 
the plane of the showy and the outward, the earth and 
the earthy. It is a stimulant of every evil passion in 
man, of every nerve of his darker and fallen being. It 
is the perversion of faculties which God gave for pur- 
poses noble and divine. It oils the wheels of trade, but 
it often makes trade itself a crime. It creates public 
place and public honor, but it often makes public place 
and public honor the very pillory of all degradation. It 
traffics in manliness and virtue. Glory, kingdom, power, 
glittering pomp are there, but they sit upon a throne 
built of ruined humanity ; a hideous self, like a fiery 
moloch, feeding upon the children of men. It creates 
burdens for the fatherless and the widow. It mars every 
relation of society. Its very breath is insincerity, and 
also impurity. It creates and sustains whatever there 
is in life demoralizing, immoral, and dangerous. Its only 
reality is its disappointment and its wrong. Its promises 
are a shadow and a name. But all this will the devil 
give, if you will fall down and worship him. No Christian 
can possibly be in it. There is force here in the idea of a 
mountain, for if a Christian look upon it at all, he must 
look down upon it. But the Christian is tempted to go 
there. Yes, my friend, and when you are there, whirling 
in the giddy mazes of fashion, flattered, caressed, and 
applauded, when you ride upon the car of success or 
prosperity, Satan may be nearer to you than you would 
like to have him, if you only knew, but if you are a 



RENOUNCING THE WORLD. 281 

professing child of God, the more pressing is the temp- 
tation, for you read in your catechism that you renounce 
the world, the flesh, and the devil. You see you must 
do it, not because the Church says so, but the Church 
says so, because you must do it, if you would enter the 
the abodes of the blest. The ivorldly Christian, a con- 
tradiction in terms — but the worldly Christian is the best 
bait for Satan's trap. To be a Christian in deed and in 
truth, you must have set your face like a flint against 
the world, the flesh, and the devil, and your heart like 
a mirror toward the glory of the Kingdom of God. 

Now, have I set before you to-day, any idea of a 
Christian life ? Have I explained to you any of those 
expressions you often hear, like that of a Christian con- 
flict, the idea of a struggle ? Do you see the flesh on 
the one side, and the spirit on the other ? Do you per- 
ceive that the idea of trial is not repulsive, for it is 
instantly the pledge of a regenerate nature, and the 
only road to the glory of God. I would like to give 
you, if I could, the idea of different planes of being. 
You would not like to be merely an animal. But how 
much above the animal would you like to be ? I would 
like to give you this idea, that moral being means, that 
you are to choose what plane of being shall be yours. 
Temptation comes that you might decide, and trial 
comes to test your decision. I would like to say this, 
whatever plane you choose, you shall grow more and 
more into it. Think it not strange. You shall have 
your choice. God will not cheat you. No ; you think 
that by and by, it will be time enough for you to de- 
cide. But why should you think that? You observe 
the poor man whose God is money — does he get the 
less miserly as he grows old ? You take the man who 



282 SERMONS. 

has buried all his nobler faculties in self, does he find 
them more vivid as life ebbs away? All things beget 
after their kind. If you sow the wind, you will reap 
the whirlwind. You might get alarmed when you feel, 
by and by, that death is on your track — some men do, 
some are too insensible even for that; they have no 
bands in their death. They die as the brute dieth- — 
but those who do, have lost, too often, all spiritual 
vision, life sinks down into one dark and dismal abyss. 
Never having been born from above, the things that 
would make for their peace are hidden from their 
eyes. But you are deciding whether you will or not, 
every day. That is one of the mysteries you need 
to look into. Life is real. Not to choose is still a 
choice. Did you ever reflect upon that expression of 
the Saviour, " the outer darkness ?" You see God hath 
a kingdom, a home. It is heaven, the abode of pure 
soul. If you have not that you are simply left out. 
That is all. But what is that all ? God grant none of 
us may ever know. No angels minister there. The 
devil never departs. The two spheres are two — a gulf 
lies between. Was it no mercy that Christ trod there 
to warn you ? Do no revealings of God's love, no inti- 
mations that this Gospel is God's blessed scheme of 
rescue for you, strike through this temptation of Christ? 
Do you not see that the Gospel is so framed as to bring 
you an intimation of its divine intention ? Does God 
not call you ? When you reflect upon Satan, is he not 
himself a warning to you? What answer will you 
make to-day ? What record shall be inscribed upon the 
books that are to be opened ? In the world you shall 
have tribulation, do what you will. Christ alone over- 
came the world, and in Christ alone can you overcome. 



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH. 283 

But, brethern, before I close, just let me say this ; 
some of us are in trial. I mean we are conscious of a 
great struggle, a struggle we voluntarily took up, being 
called of God. Well, from what has been said, where 
else would we be? You see you are upon the plane of 
trial. When you look back through the Bible and 
through all the centuries, who are they who alone are fit 
to live? Who are they who alone do live? Oh, I think 
it is a great blessing to have passed the border land of 
temptation. Do you not find as you get older, that you 
get better satisfied with what God gives you and less 
and less troubled about anything the earth has to give? 
Are there not many providences and many experiences 
which are ministering angels? If you had to go back 
and take up life again, would you not take up just the 
same kind of life, only more of it? Well, that is where 
this theme has a voice for us. Take up just as much 
of it as we can. The more single the eye, the more 
absolutely filled with light will the body be. The more 
truly we are the sons of God, the more truly shall we 
stand revealed in the last day with Jesus, in the far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH. 

Luke 18 : 8. — Nevertheless when the son of man cometh, shall he find 
faith on the earth ? 



The whole of this passage of which the text is a part, 
was occasioned by a question put to Christ by the Phari- 
sees. They asked of Him, " when the Kingdom of God 



284 



SERMONS. 



should come." The Lord's answer took its form from 
His knowledge of the Pharisaic conception or miscon- 
ception of that kingdom. The Pharisees had an idea 
that the Kingdom of God was to be a visible, pompous, 
human kingdom. The Apostles had the same idea, be- 
cause it was the prevailing idea. They stood upon the 
level of their times as all of us stand upon the level of 
ours, and notwithstanding the repeated attempts of the 
Saviour, it was not till after His resurrection He suc- 
ceeded in giving them a realizing sense of the king- 
dom He would establish. The Lord's answer to these 
Pharisees was — " The Kingdom of God cometh not 
with outward show." It is not after the pattern of 
earthly kingdoms, nor responsive at all to the cravings 
of the gross, carnal heart. It is not outside of you, but 
inside of you. It is not ow/fsight, but insight. It is the 
vision of things divine, and a life harmonious with them. 
" The kingdom of heaven is within your 

Turning to His disciples, whose faces doubtless were 
upturned to His in amazement and disappointment, 
with eager inquiry written upon every line, He endeav- 
ors to guard them against mistakes in eventful times 
soon to come. " Do not expect any such kingdom," 
He says, " as the Pharisees expect. Even this that 
you see around you is to be swept away. They 
will expose me to every woe and finally reject me. 
But I shall come notwithstanding, and fearful will be 
the day of my coming. It will not do for you to be 
half-hearted then. You will need the power of this 
spiritual kingdom. By you the new kingdom will have 
to be built, and by those after you." Thus, by a most 
delicate transition, he carries their mind onward to their 
great mission, onward through the struggling ages, to 



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH. 



285 



His second coming, telling them in a parable, that the 
one instrumentality by which the Gospel kingdom was 
to grow, was this inner vision, this sight of God, this 
trust, this faith, that however long their hope was de- 
ferred, however desperate their cause might seem, it still 
could not fail. If a human judge, and he none of the 
best, could be touched by the desperate pleadings of a 
helpless widow, through motives to which his nature 
were alive, how much more would God, a righteous 
judge, never forget the pleadings of His bereaved Church, 
this deserted, widowed race, till its longings be met and 
its cause won ! Your business is always to pray and 
never to faint, to see me and God and heaven, and know 
that because these are in your own heart and in proportion 
as they are there, my kingdom comes. There still gazing 
upon those mystified faces, seeing the fearful interval be- 
tween that seed He was sowing, and the ultimate harvest 
He knew would come up, out of the depths of His yearn- 
ing spirit bursts the ejaculation : " Nevertheless, when 
the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth." 

Of all things difficult to define, and therefore difficult 
to impress upon the human mind, is this thing, faith. 
The difficulty arises from our carnality, from the fact 
that we live, like the Pharisees, in our grosser, outer, 
animal nature, not in our intellectual, moral and spirit- 
ual nature. The thing most talked about in the world, 
is still the thing most difficult to understand, religion. 
It is a thing which each soul has to perceive for itself. 
It is soul-vision. The best that mortal language can do 
is to suggest it. It never can express it. It is like 
every other pure essence. The poet cannot tell us his 
experiences, whatever he tells us is only the shadow of 
what he sees. The painter, the sculptor, they make no 



286 



SERMONS. 



legacy of their skill. The true riches must be acquired. 
Above all, the pearl of great price must be sought. 
Religion ! Wisdom ! In all thy gettings, get that. It is 
the Supreme good, and so we strive. We strive for 
each other, Jesus strove for us all. 

It is constituted of three prime elements, "faith, hope 
and charity." Paul says, charity is the greatest; John 
says, faith is the victory that overcometh the world. 
Of essentials in any thing, it is very difficult to say 
which is the most important. Of essentials, we may 
have more room for its exercise, but even that cannot 
exist without the others. 

This word faith is employed in several senses. Per- 
haps a better expression would be, this word faith has 
many methods of application. It is not a thing pecu- 
liar to religion. I mean by that, religion is not its only 
sphere. It is the one thing essential to human life. It 
is the perception of, and reliance upon, certain principles 
or laws, leading to certain results. The physician sees 
the laws of health, he makes his prescription in reliance 
upon those laws. The parent sees the laws of society, 
of well or ill-being, and he trains his child according to 
his vision. The merchant sees the laws of trade, of de- 
mand and supply, of public trust and mistrust. Accord- 
ing to his sagacity he makes his ventures. All that is 
faith. Some of it is very low, to be sure, but still it is 
faith after its kind and in its degree, and yet we cannot 
say it is the faith that is low. The vision is good. It 
is only the application which is mean or noble. But 
faith is never a fixed quantity. It is not the same to 
you and me. It varies, and all the faith possible for 
you, in this world or any other, is that you possess, 
whatever its kind, or whatever its degree. It is so in 



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH. 



287 



everything. You cannot show some men even how to 
make money, But like every thing else, faith can grow, 
i. e., your vision can extend. It does extend in whatever 
direction you give it, and hence the value of what we 
call experience. Faith, therefore, in any plane on which 
you put it, is simply vision. As such, it may be more 
or less. It may rise from the particular to the general, 
from the individual to the universal. 

In religion it always does this, and hence you have 
the word faith applied to that exercise of the soul, by 
which, in its longings, out of the depths of its convic- 
tions, it looks up to Jesus and says, 44 Lord, I believe." 
At first even that may be very tremblingly said. There 
may be no clear conception of how Christ is the Saviour, 
of what salvation is. Faith may be, and is at first, as 
the smoking flax and the bruised reed. But it grows 
till the soul can rejoice in the "full assurance " of faith. 
But another soul may go beyond that, into a wider per- 
ception of law, or a wider application of the same law. 
One soul may see it is saved, another soul may see that 
the law which saved it, shall also inevitably work till 
all are saved. Hence we have different expressions for 
faith, sometimes subjectively, the exercise of the vision 
within us — sometimes objectively, that upon which the 
vision is fixed. Sometimes the principle itself, sometimes 
that in which the principle shall result. But always in 
one general formula, faith is the substance of a desirable 
thing, the evidence of a thing we yet cannot grasp. 

We talk about faith, by and by growing into sight. 
Faith is always growing into sight, if it is growing .at 
all. Faith will grow forever and ever. The archangels 
have more faith than we have, because they see more 
than we do. The visions in the heavens above, are not 



288 



SERMONS. 



visions with these bodily eyes. The kingdom of heaven 
as I said just now, is wsight, not outsight, a thousand 
glories are every day spread before these physical eyes 
which we see not. You and I gaze upon the landscape, 
but we do not see the same thing, as Newton, or Walter 
Scott, or somebody who said about himself and his dog 
Diamond, they both gazed upon the stars, but they saw 
very different worlds. Yes, and there are more glories 
in all things than any of us see. The glories of God are 
not what any physical eye can report. All vision at 
least is soul-vision. Wonderful as all these bodies are, 
they are only a clod, and many a man has nothing more, 
and would you call him a man at all ? All space and 
all time and all eternity can make you no more than 
that clod, except as you open your spirit and receive 
space and time and eternity. That reception is faith. 
Faith is therefore a variable quantity. There are degrees 
of it so great that cherubim and seraphim, may be said 
to have faith, and degrees of it so feeble, we may ques- 
tion whether we have it all. Would the angels call 
our visions faith ? If you look at the Apostles, you 
can distinctly trace the growth of their faith. At first, 
how dim it was ! How blind they were ! They saw 
nothing ! The words of Christ awoke in them hardly 
the remotest response. The wonderfulness of His be- 
ing seemed scarcely to have dawned upon them. How 
wonderful that they should be with Him, and be think- 
ing all the time of a palace and a sceptre, of flimsy 
pomp, and never ask a word of the mysteries that were 
beating in all being about them, not a word about any 
scientific truth He might have told them, not a spiritual 
• fact He might have revealed, of what the soul was, of 
where the spirit went, of how it could see God, only 



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH. 



289 



/ evermore paltry self, and poor, blind Israel. Even after 
the resurrection, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore 
again the kingdom to Israel ?" How was it possible for 
that Saviour to dwell there ? What a hopeless task 
to make an impression upon a soul so dead ! How 
absolutely hopeless, that work would have seemed to 
an angel or archangel to wake up spirit so dead, and 
yet from that point draw a contrast between Christ 
and them. What an interval was there ! Do you catch 
no glimpses there of the God incarnate ! God never 
despairs. All things are possible to perfect vision. 
Any but God would have left us alone. Do you see 
nothing of the wonderful condescension and sacrifice ? 
Do you see that Christ was a revelation to us of 
God, of goodness, of love ; that he who had seen Him 
had seen the Father. He seems to see not earth at all 
Amid all sorrow and sin, amid the conspirings of this 
very blindness of men, with the surgings of all provi- 
dence beating against Him, He stands like a rock. He 
has vision. He knows even our blindness shall be over- 
come. He knows that a race shall be redeemed from 
darkness and that a world shall be saved from woe. 
Only to God are all things possible. Only God, never 
abandoned us. 

But how should this race be saved ? By His reveal- 
ings. They were a revelation of God. By giving us 
the inner vision, the vision of divine things, do you see 
how His sacrifice saves, that if he had never come we 
could never have known God. Do you see that to be- 
lieve in Christ is to believe upon that which was in 
Christ, to believe in the God-soul, the God-power, 
and that that power works in the man-soul and creates 
power that he who hath the Son of God hath life, and 
that to have life is to have the Son of God. Do you see 



290 



SERMONS. 



that the incarnation is the explanation to us of this be- 
ing, God for man, and man for God, God in man and 
man in God, that the incarnation is at once a prophesy 
and pledge of the destiny of the race, that the promise 
which Jesus otherwise made is involved in it, that the 
gates of hell should not prevail against us ? Do you see 
how afterwards, when the scales had fallen from the 
Apostolic eyes, how they leaped themselves into that 
new life, how they had faith ? Do you see the meaning 
of the scales that fell from Paul's eyes, how persecution 
and want and death had no influence over them at all, 
and how, for the first time, they were truty alive, how the 
Scribes and Pharisees and Elders were only so many 
ghosts before them ; and what a power they were ? 
Against the new life, Emperors and Herods and High 
Priests and all that the world called power, availed no- 
thing. That faith really was the victory that overcame 
the world, and so it has always been. It is faith which 
has removed mountains, discovered continents, and re- 
vealed worlds. It is vision, and do you see, if the world 
were never to be wholly redeemed, Christ would never 
have undertaken it. 

Well, you can see all that to-day, multitudes of us 
can see it. You can see the interval between the Apos- 
tles before Pentecost and those same Apostles after 
Pentecost. Had their faith not grown ? You see the 
interval between our world to-day and our world that 
day. Has faith not grown ? Are there no more Chris- 
tians now than there were in the first century ? Of us 
Christians all together, are there none of us that see 
into divine things further than those who first believed ? 
And yet, as compared with the man Christ Jesus, and 
as compared with the vision that angels have, can we 



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH. 



291 



be said to have any faith ? Would you call this faith 
that we have ? "What do we see ? 

And this is the point to which I wished to bring you. 
This passage of Scripture has been employed to convey 
the idea that Christ said, the world would grow worse 
and worse, to make Christ contradict Himself, and say 
the gates of hell should prevail. Multitudes there are 
to-day who believe that, and I want to ask you whether 
you can call that, faith in Christ, faith in God, faith in 
divine things ? Multitudes there are to-day, who are 
looking upon the world in sourness and gloom, telling 
us that it has gone to destruction, when Jesus has died 
that it may never go to destruction — telling us it is the 
devil's world, when Jesus bought it with His own blood, 
and made it God's world — telling us all men are going 
away from Jesus, when Jesus said if He were lifted up 
He would draw all men unto Him. After all the mar- 
vellous things the ages have brought forth, and all the 
marvellous things our eyes have seen, telling us Jesus died 
in vain. Do you call that faith ? When the angels see 
the purposes of God, when Jesus beholds our slowness 
of heart, are there no sighs in heaven. And through 
this, can you not see what Jesus means, in the text, 
When I come, be it soon or be it late, shall I find any- 
thing here I can truly call faith ? anything truly becom- 
ing to my disciples ? anything worthy the sons of God ? 

Now this, I say, brethren, is the one thing we are 
wanting to-clay, we Christians. We have not the cour- 
age to go in and possess the land. I do not say the 
world has more faith than the Church, not at all. But 
I do say the Church has not half the faith she might 
have. The faith of the race, the soul-vision of man- 
kind, is infinite as compared with what it was eighteen 



292 



SERMONS. 



hundred years ago, and it has grown by means of the 
Church. Jesus Christ has been the light of the world. 
But it might have grown more, and would have grown 
more, had our faith all along been more. Look at the 
world. The leaves of the tree have been for the healing 
of the nations. Look at science. Is that no part of 
the Kingdom of God, and is it nothing to inherit that ? 
Look at art. Is that no part of the divine legislation ? 
Is it no part of God's great plan, that by the employ- 
ment of intellect and soul, man can inherit the earth ? 
Is that the work of the devil ? If your boy were 
stretched dying in New York, anxious only to breathe 
his last accent in your parental ear, would telegraph and 
rail be no blessing to you both ? Is a true civilization 
opposed to God ? Is all our talk about a human frater- 
nity, is a literature, teeming with high-born thought, 
with far-reaching truth, emancipating man from bigotry 
and ignorance, and superstition ; is philosophy, asking 
of every element of being the most urgent questions ; 
is freedom from dogma, and from priestly dictation, and 
liberation of intellect, and schools for the masses, and 
libraries and lectures, and reforms, and homes for the 
blind, and the deaf and the indigent — is all that born 
of the will of the flesh, and of the inspiration of the 
devil? One would so imagine to hear us Christians 
talk sometimes. Why, my brethren, the Church is 
the parent of them, and they in their reflex influ- 
ence are the feeders of the Church. Were the wells 
that were digged in Canaan, and the houses that 
were built, and the grapes that grew, and the vines and 
figtrees, all unreal and not worth having ? Did God 
not intend them for His inheritance ? Was not the 
only thing wanting to them a people worthy of them ? 



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH. 



293 



And is it not so to-day ? We are of little faith. Down 
below all Christian life, there is a groundswell of fear 
that the people will get along without religion. You 
know the people of England cannot see how there could 
be any religion in the masses if the Church were cut 
loose from the State, just as if they thought the pay- 
ment of Church rates could make religion, just as if we 
should think that to remove our water board and water 
tax, the people would never thirst. How in this coun- 
try we keep up churches and have religion, is a mystery 
to the Europeans. When Pere Hyacinth was recently 
in New York, a prominent clergyman took him into his 
church, showed him the costly building, the Sunday 
school room, lecture room, reading room. How is it, 
says the father, you get these things with no govern- 
ment to help you ? The people give their money, says 
the pastor. Do your laws compel them, asked the 
father. No ; it is purely voluntary. What, gave all this 
of their own accord ! he exclaimed — ah, I see it now, 
God and the people, God and the people. As I have 
walked your streets and seen your temples and cities, 
I have caught a new idea of your greatness. I see it 
all now-— God and the people. Yes, my brethren, the 
very pledge of the incarnation is God in the people, and 
the people in God, humanity in Diety, and Deity in 
humanity. The Holy Ghost, the God-life, working and 
quickening the human spirit, the man-life. You cannot 
quench it or stop it, if you should try. You could not 
keep religion from man by all the powers of earth 
united. If you should pass a law to-morrow, to take 
religion from the people, that law would have but one 
effect, and that instantly to grind the blind legislators 
to powder. What an absence of faith there is, when 



294 



SERMONS. 



we cannot see it ! If you should pass a law imposing 
empty forms and ceremonies, any mere make believe, 
they would not have it. They demand thought and 
reality and the God-life. That they will have, and we 
ought to be thinking of how more and more they shall 
have it. Why, to-day, what is it that is uppermost in our 
world ? What name is it that stands above all names ? 
The cross and Jesus. Philosophers are asking about it. 
Historians are searching into it. The press is throwing 
off as many sermons as novels. You can read them 
even in your daily papers. Yes, brethren, one thing 
that makes me think the second coming is near, is, that 
Jesus said, we should see him seated upon the clouds 
in power and great glory. In all the clouds that are 
rolling around us, above them all, I see Jesus seated in 
power and great glory. He rides upon all the storms, 
and all the elements are his ministers. Infidelity, from 
the lips of a poor faithless Roman, says, yes, He was 
God. Philosophy says, yes, thou art the desired of all 
nations. History says, thou art King of kings, and 
Lord of lords. Faith says, thou art the Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sins of the world, the healing of 
the nations, the sum of all blessing. 

I know there is darkness enough, and crime and 
wrong and sorrow enough. But where is it ? Just 
where the world sees it must of necessity be, just where 
men make it. There is enough. But will you go 
through this great city and pass by its churches and its 
houses of comfort, its living citizens, and go to the pest 
house and the gutter and sewer and pick up its filth 
and stench and say, what a city of corruption ! What 
a hot-bed of death ! Is your next door neighbor a 
thief? Has the bosom on which you recline ever be- 



LOYE ACTING IN FAITH. 



295 



trayed you ? Can you find nothing lovely and nothing 
pure? If you find meanness everywhere, are you sure 
you do not carry some of it there yourself? You must 
remember that the paper in the morning which 
brings you the news of the crops and the decrees of 
Senators, brings also the accumulated crimes of the civil- 
ized world, and as if they were not great enough in 
themselves, they are not unfrequently embellished and 
multiplied. I know we have enough. The earth is 
travelling in agony and the groans of the race are still 
going up to God, but has nothing been done ? Is there 
no light ? And why is there as much darkness as there 
is, except that you and I have not been better and no- 
bler ourselves ; claiming to be sons of God, have not had 
the faith which pertains to the sons of God ? While 
we complain of the crimes and vices and evils of life, 
does our faith lift us above - the vanities and follies of 
the world, into the sunlight of the graces and virtues 
of the Son of God, into the breadth, and height of the 
Gospel glory ? No, beloved, I believe that every Sun- 
day when we say that " confession," we say the truth : 
We have erred and strayed like lost sheep. We have 
followed the devices and desires of our own hearts. We 
have offended against God's holy laws. " We have left 
undone the things we ought to have done, and done the 
things we ought not to have done, and there is no health 
in us." That is true, and that is the thing God wants 
in us, healthy faith, vision of divine things ; remember- 
ing the words of the Master, you are the salt, you 
are the light — remembering that one reason why the 
world is so wicked is partly because we ourselves are 
so little above it, we ourselves are not much better. 
We are still of little faith, and therefore not half the 



296 



SERMONS. 



power we ought to be. The thing, of all things, which 
should walk the earth the most hopefully and yet the 
same time the most humhly is the Christian. It is no 
part of faith to be grumbling. You get rid of darkness 
only by creating light. One thing we want to get rid 
of, and that is the habit of tying God down to our little 
grooves and insisting that He shall be there alone. We 
have faith in dogmatic formula, and Church machinery, 
which instead of being vision are blinds over the vision 
we might have. That was the sin of the Jew, that is 
the sin of the Papacy, that is the sin of sect. God is 
broader than man and the Gospel comprehends the race. 
You cannot put either of them in your little ism, nor I 
in mine. Oh ! what a light there had been upon earth 
if we had long ago learned to stretch all ism to the ful- 
ness of Christ. 

Hear what a thoughtful Japanese said in our country 
the other day. He is a student in one of our colleges, 
a fact in itself full of hope. He says : " As I deliber- 
ate on the history of Christianity in Western nations, I 
find precedents which show, that if the Church, as an 
institution, is established in Japan before the people are 
taught the Gospel, then there will be no social improve- 
ment for my people, for the morality and prosperity of 
nations advance, according to their knowledge and prac- 
tice of the specific duties and virtues of the Christian reli- 
gion as we find it in the New Testament? I tell you that 
man had not studied Christianity in vain. He preaches 
the Gospel to us. What we want is the power, the 
principle, the vision, the faith, not the form, or the mere 
creed, or the sect. If any of us choose to anchor there, 
the world will pass us by. Neither circumcision avail- 
eth anything, nor uncircumcism, but a new creature., nei- 



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297 



ther circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, 
but faith which worketh by love, love acting in faith. 

Beloved, believe in God, in Christ, in the Holy Ghost. 
Believe God is everywhere, and therefore goodness and 
love. Believe in that. You are going out to-day to 
the duties and conflicts, the trials and sorrows, the joys 
and hopes of another year. And how are you going ? 
My dear brother, if you have no faith, if you are work- 
ing like a mole for a mere existence, you had better 
never been born. If you see the kingdom of Christ, 
and are working for that, then there is a day of glory 
for you in the manifestation of the sons of God. I have 
brought these thoughts to you this morning, that you 
might go as in the very presence of God, believing this 
to be God's world, believing yourself to be under His 
hand, endeavoring to see Him in all that is around you, 
putting Him in all your work, with a nobler faith, with 
a manlier trust, consecrating soul and body, intellect 
and business, pleasure and pain, and all life, to the glory 
of Him who hath called you, and yearns for you to be 
near to Him in all holiness. So you will fulfil your 
mission, so life will give you the best, life can give you 
a home* with God. I know our bark is in the midst of 
the sea, tossed by the waves ; darkness is around us, 
and we have been toiling all the night. But what of it 
all ! Jesus is on board. His very presence is the 
pledge that we cannot sink. Presently, He can arise 
and say "peace" and the waves shall be still, and the 
storm shall be laid, and we shall be at the haven where 
we would be. The knowledge of God's perfect and 
everlasting love, the fullness of the eternal kingdom. 
Let us have faith. 



298 



SERMONS. 



CONSECRATION TO GOD. 

Ephesians5: 1, 2.— Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children, 
and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for 
us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. 

The verse before this in the last chapter, reads, " Be 
ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one 
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven 
you," and so this verse follows. Though we gain in 
the aggregate by having our Scriptures divided into 
chapters and verses, we sometimes lose somewhat, by 
cutting a paticular topic in two. Such a loss we in a 
measure sustain here. The subject of the Apostle in 
this immediate place, embraces a view of the various 
relations we sustain to each other, and the spirit we are 
to exhibit in these relations. He is looking squarely 
at the fact that we are social beings, which is as em- 
phatically a fact as that we are individuals. We have 
faculties and properties by means of society, and for 
society. We are like the figures which express an arith- 
metical number. Our values increase or diminish by 
reason of our place. We have inherent forces of our 
own, but combination, or society, is the vitality of indi- 
vidual force. " We are members of one another." One 
coal of fire in a grate goes out. Five hundred coals 
make a fire. Moral being is so constituted as to de- 
mand of us a conscious recognition of the moral forces. 
It has made the cultivation of wise moral forces impera- 
tive. Rather, all moral forces are wise, good, holy, and 



CONSECRATION TO GOD. 



299 



moral being demands of us their recognition and culti- 
vation. When we see facts which indicate immoral 
forces, we misunderstand the cause of the facts. They 
actually result from the absence of a true moral force. 
The action of the true moral forces would prevent such 
results, and place others in their stead. Neglect the 
moral forces, and you get immorality. Extinguish your 
light, and you are in the dark. Blot out the sun, and 
all the earth would freeze. Leave the sun blotted out, 
and it would appear as if frost itself were positive — 
when it would only be heat more and more departing. 
All malice, unkindness, hard-heartedness, are but the 
want of mercy, sympathy, and love. The world is so 
bad, because so many of us are no better. One man 
truly rich is a well-spring of life to his fellow men. All 
ought to be rich. Christ was infinitely rich. He was 
the universal Redeemer. The Christian is rich. All 
moral forces are active in him. He is salt. He is light. 
That is his mission, to build up and keep the moral 
forces alive. He who does not do it is not a Christian. 
Any number of Christians, uniting in a given combina- 
tion, is a Church. But a Church which has lost its 
moral potency, is a dead Church, no Church at all. 

The highest of all moral forces is love. God is love. 
It is impossible to tell all that love is. There have 
been many attempts at defining it. It is not simply 
" friendship without wings, " as I think the French call 
it. It is not merely passionate instinct, as the sensualist 
conceives. It is not the combination of these two, as 
some have pronounced it. It appears to be the result- 
ant of a tribute levied upon every faculty and attribute 
of true moral being. If there is anything of strength, 
anything of truth, of wisdom, of purity, of unself, it is 



300 



SERMONS. 



in love. If there is anything of service, of help, of en- 
durance, it is found in love. If there is anything that 
seeks in restless, untiring sympathy, it is love. If we 
can take another's place, love can do it. If a desired 
end is to be accomplished, all things are possible to love. 
It is that to possess which is to enrich another. It is 
that which, in proportion as it enriches another, is itself 
rich. All things depend on God. God alone is perfect 
love. He loves irrespective of our action — loves in 
spite of our action. " He is kind to the evil and to the 
good." He so loved the world as to give His only be- 
gotten Son to save it. Herein is love, that while we 
were yet sinners Christ died for us. He forgives us 
our sins every day whether we ask Him or not, whether 
we know we are sinners or not. He pities us all 
the more that we feel not we are sinners, do not seek 
a knowledge of forgiveness, are not therefore weaned by 
forgiveness from our sin. This it is to grieve God, that 
we remain insensible, indifferent to all His love. This 
it is to disinherit ourselves, to be lost, not to have the 
Spirit of God. This it is to be poor and naked, an ob- 
ject of pity, " dead in trespasses and sins." The differ- 
ence between the righteous and the wicked is not so 
much in God's feelings toward them as in their feeling 
toward Him. God cannot hate anybody, or anything. 
I know the Bible says, " God is angry with the wicked 
every day." But it cannot be anger as we are angry. 
That is a weakness, weakness is not in God. Nature 
is cruel against the man who impiously resists her. 
Whoever resists her, resists to hi sown costs. Whoever 
resists God, will find it were better God were angry and 
would blot him out forever. But grief is divine. It is 
only a rich nature that can pity. It is only the richest 



CONSECRATION TO GOD. 



301 



nature that can pity most. The glory of our salvation 
is, our merit has nothing to do with it. It is God's free 
gift in His Son. The best of us are so far from God 
we have literally nothing to commend us to Him. He 
has to pity us all, and bears with us from day to day 
more on account of our desires, than our attainments. 
He grieves over our leanness. We only cease to be 
pitiable, or an object of grief, as we cease to be sordid 
selves, as we become like Him, as we have that which is 
love, as we are above weakness, such as anger, envy, un- 
sympathy, pride, selfishness, as we are strong in bearing 
all things, like a fountain of pure water pouring out health 
and purity whether the hand that receives it be soiled 
or clean, as we are a tower of support to the weak and 
erring, as we prevent what the wicked create, as we 
neutralize the envy, hatred and malice the unrighteous 
beget. Hence, love is the ivliole duty of man. Our busi- 
ness upon earth is to cultivate it as a spirit within us, 
an animus, the presiding force of our being. That is 
what salvation is, forming our desires in that direction 
and conforming our lives to those desires. We have 
nothing to do with other people's actions toward us, ex- 
cept to see that our love is equal to the tests God ap- 
plies, through what we call " providence " in this thing 
we call " society." 

When anger begins to rise in a wise man, he does not 
say the other man is hateful. He says to his own soul, 
thou art weak. Thou hast something to learn. Hence, 
"love worketh no ill to his neighbor," however deserv- 
ing of ill that neighbor may be. It is ill enough that 
he does deserve it. The visiting of ill is not the work 
of a holy agent. His work is to prevent ill. Like God, 
his mission is to roll back evil, to overcome evil with 



302 



SERMONS. 



good, that if the wicked will go on in their wickedness 
they must do it, not by means of us, but in spite of us. 
We are co-workers with God. Hence, " all the law is 
fulfilled " in one word, even in this, " Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself." So that amid all the combi- 
nations of life, and the vexations of society, the wise 
man asks, not what action his neighbor's conduct merits, 
but what action is worthy of himself. What does his 
own rule of life prescribe ? What would the Saviour 
have done ? It will not do to say this is placing too 
high a standard for human action. What does the life 
of Christ mean ? What else is a Christian life ? If 
Christ's example were nothing, how are we better off 
with it than we would have been without it ? You see 
noble independence, freedom, soul-strength, looming up 
there. You see heaven of necessity there. Heaven is 
the aggregation of the pure, the meek, the strong. This 
is one of the glories of the incarnation. It manifests 
God in action, heavenliness. It brings the divine be- 
ing here to our apprehension, defines the divine nature 
for us, marks the road to its attainment, does it here, 
not only amid elements which would to all appearance 
make it impossible, but does it by means of these ele- 
ments. This is to be a Christian, to be like Christ ; no- 
thing else. " In this the children of God are manifested 
and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not 
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his 
brother, for this is the message that we have heard from 
the beginning, that we love one another." " A new 
commandment give I unto you that ye love one another 
as I have loved you!' " Love ye your enemies, that ye 
may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." 



CONSECRATION TO GOD. 



303 



It can be done by nothing in the world, but by faith in 
Christ, by strength which God supplies through Christ. 

Now, St. Paul says, " Be ye therefore followers of 
God, as dear children ;" more literally, " Be ye imitators 
of God, or like God, as children beloved. In the fami- 
ly, the child like the father, the child worthy of its pa- 
rentage, is the true child. " God for Christ's sake hath 
forgiven you. Therefore, be ye followers of God, as 
dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath 
loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sac- 
rifice for a sweet-swelling savor." To love those only 
who love us, is not necessarily to love at all ; we cannot 
help it, and there is no virtue in it. The publicans do 
even the same. A child loves its mother, but it would 
be even below nature if it did not. True love is 
not only not without our consent, it is a culture. Love 
that the Apostle speaks of, godly love, religious love, is 
not the mere parental bond, nor the action of that law 
of affinities which binds heart to heart in mysterious 
attachment. It is not mere social respect and worldly 
politeness, making feasts for those who make feasts for 
us. " These things are divided unto all people under 
heaven." It is not patronizing those even who can- 
not make a feast for us, as Simon did toward Christ. 
All such love is only another form of self-love. When 
a man makes a great feast and displays all his riches 
and invites you, it is not the measure of respect he has 
for you, but the measure of respect he wants you to 
have for him. Christian love is the spirit, the character, 
the condition of soul, known more as benevolence and 
beneficence, aiming at the good of others through that 
action called self-sacrifice. Christian love is curative. 
It finds employment for our faculties, our skill, any and 



304 



SERMONS. 



every talent God has given us. The ills in society, the 
perverseness of men, the crosses they erect for us, the 
burdens they impose, are the measure of unself there 
is in us. He only is rich who has something to give. 
Who can give most is richest of all. There is great 
force in that idea of which the Romanists retain the 
perversion, the idea of absolute consecration. With 
them it is consecration to the Church, " to a religious life " 
as they call it — i. e., to a life, not merely of separation, 
but of seclusion, a life that buries soul and body, that 
neutralizes every faculty, a paralysis of all spirit. No 
mortal can pray all the time, or keep his mind con- 
stantly fixed upon any topic, especially such as are con- 
sidered religious, except as he ceases to have a mind. 
But there is force in the idea of religious consecration. 
The world wants something beside prayers, something 
more than technical religion. It does not want much 
money nor much machinery. It wants that which is 
above all price and which never can become mechanical. 
It wants manhood, ivomanhood, moral force, love poiver, 
that- which can lift burdens, and kindle thought and 
love, and give other souls time to breathe, and it wants 
it not in monasteries and nunneries, but right out in 
the very press and throng of crippled, needy, suffering 
men and women. Vicarious sacrifice is the one law of 
all life. We look with despair upon our fruitless expen- 
ditures, upon our complex machineries. Well we may. 
Soul is the only force that hath life in itself. Christ- 
life is the only life that quickens. Our churches are 
magazines of Christian sentiment. Our Christian homes 
are the burial places of soul-force which, if alive, would 
quicken the world. 

I know of a woman to-night, in a damp basement, 



CONSECRATION TO GOD. 



305 



struggling with poverty and all the woes of a widow. 
She has three helpless children. She is fighting with 
a heroic desperation to keep her children together. I 
can get money to keep a shelter over her head, but the 
woman will soon die, die of foul air and poor food, and 
scanty clothes, and overwork, and above all, of a dreary, 
aching sense of loneliness. Three orphans will be left 
for some friendly home-for-friendlessness. And three 
such orphans ! They have not known the comfort of 
cleanliness. They eat, when they can, not as human 
beings should, and though that woman would tear out 
her heart to save them, they know not what love is. 
There is no time there for love. Of all the Christians 
in this city, there is not one to be a guardian angel to 
that family, one to sit with that woman as a sister, and 
sew — one to send a thrill of encouragement through her 
soul — one to keep her back from the grave, or, by in- 
struction and training, to place her little ones, by and 
by, above the temptation of vice, and prepare them for 
a dwelling place with God. An hour's sewing or clean- 
ing there, every day, would be the best prayer that 
could be offered for her. It would go to her heart. 
And how many cases are just like hers, and that in a 
world where so many of us have given ourselves to 
God, with nothing to do ; have taken up the cross, and 
are called by the name of Christian. Talk of sending 
women to the women of India. That is all very well, 
but some of the women of Baltimore need women sent 
to them. Are not Christians the supreme want of our 
world to-day ? Why are there so many ills in society, 
so much perverseness in men, but that so few of us 
have love to that degree which can make a sacrifice, 
love which can give ourselves to prevent wrong and 



306 



SERMONS. 



evil, to create wisdom and peace ? Do you see the 
force of what I said, that vicarious sacrifice is the law 
of life ? What erects more crosses and imposes more 
burdens than ignorance ? Go into the slums and dens 
of any city, and there you see only the resultants of 
neglect. It is easy enough to censure, and say it is all 
good enough for them. So said not Christ, respecting 
ourselves. The love of the Gospel is that love which 
considers men unfortunate, rather than faulty, which 
causes us to take the place of the offender, and feel that 
we were there, except that God's love had kept us back, 
except that some mercy, springing in the sacrifice of a 
father or mother, or friend, some merciful providence of 
God, had fallen to our lot. Rowland Hill once stood 
beside a gallows when an unhappy criminal was launched 
into eternity. His throbbing ejaculation was, " There 
swings Rowland Hill, but for the grace of God." What 
he said was true, and it was the grace of God that 
taught him to feel it. Down in the sinks of life, are 
wretches, not there because they want to be there, 
there because some dark, crushing calamity sent them 
there ; there because no hand was reached down in time 
to save them ; there, as we would have been there, had 
not some blessing rescued us. They are ourselves, had 
not God's grace taught us better. What the world 
wants is rescuing, saving, blessing, Christian person- 
ality, real men and women-life. God meant the Chris- 
tian to be that, somebody to stop the woe, somebody to 
give life. Christ did that. We are content to look down 
upon men, and not always with pity. We are content 
to treat them as they deserve. So was not Christ. 
Evil, sin, wrong, when it assailed Him, just simply 
exhausted itself. The shaft buried itself in His heart 



CONSECRATION TO GOD. 



307 



forever. There was an end of it. The anger even of 
the world's anger, was that it could not anger Him. 
Oh, the blessing of that God-life then ! Make Jesus 
fall to simple human level, and you blot out Jesus, and 
all light goes out with Him. Take Him away as our 
forerunner, and how dark is our prospect ! Think that 
you cannot attain to such a life, or that there is no such 
life, and you blot out heaven. No device the world had 
was capable of measuring the love of Christ. He ended 
all strife by simply letting it exhaust itself. Then, 
turning toward us, He not only exerted His miraculous 
powers in healing us, He went to great pains to do us 
good. For aught we know, He might have stood in the 
Great Temple and cured, at a word, every malady in 
Israel. But He did not do that. He undertook long 
journeys. He hungered often. He slept on the ground, 
all to come in direct personal contact with men — all to 
impart Himself. For all that matter, He need not have 
come at all. He might have set upon a star, and have 
amazed us by some marvellous act, but then we would 
have been as far removed from God as ever, for God 
does that every day. He gave just what we wanted, 
that which God left us, but that which was to Him 
sacrifice, that which cost, that which alone to us ex- 
presses love. We, in our dealings toward each other, 
go as far as benevolence is pleasant, go till it begins to 
cost, till we reach the point where sacrifice is needful. 
There we stop. We strike ingratitude, and say it is no 
use. We strike meanness, and say the man is not worth 
caring for. The very depth of his need we make the 
very reason for deserting him. Oh, the fathomless riches 
of the love of God ! How the law of life in Christ 
Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death ! How 



308 



SERMONS. 



it is the only law that can do it ! How Christianity is 
the only religion that promises a millenium ! How to 
any other a millenium is impossible ! How our world 
must groan and suffer till we so learn this law, that it 
shall beat in all our hearts and nerve all our exertions ! 
Do you not see that, one reason why He gave Himself 
a sacrifice, was, that we might give ourselves a sacrifice, 
and that only in proportion as we do that, is blessing 
possible for our world ? 

But this line of life, this law of action is not to be 
viewed merely in the light of a duty. It is not some- 
thing imposed as a trial. I look upon it as the natural 
craving of love, that, through which the soul finds relief. 
It is a great deal better men should do well from fear, 
than that they should go on doing ill, but whoever car- 
ries duty with him everywhere, carries a burden he 
would do well to roll off, carries that with him which 
he will never want in heaven. It is true, if every man 
on earth were up to duty this world would be brighter 
than it is, but if every Christian were only no higher, 
it would be vastly darker. This love is not to be 
worked out of mere conscience, conscience is a good 
thing but it does not range over the upper stories, the 
love-chambers of our being. It is very limited, and 
very thin, and whoever is clothed only in that will feel 
cold. I cannot imagine that conscience sent Paul in a 
blaze of light over a known world. Conscience could 
have staid at Rome or Ephesus, could have made him 
tolerably comfortable in Athens, nor was it anything 
like the mere hope of reward. That in itself is but 
another form of selfishness, and is itself to lose the re- 
ward. The reward of love is the soul itself ivhich love 
creates, or transforms into her own image. The child 



CONSECRATION TO GOD. 



309 



that greets yon in the morning with a kiss because it 
must be respectful, or that would purchase thereby some 
little indulgence, would not be the child that would 
most please you. But the child who, all unconscious 
of self, found itself happy in your embraces, and flew 
there because it was relief to get there, that is the child 
that loves you. The charm of love is its unconscious- 
ness of itself. Whenever you find an individual, or an 
institution, or a church spreading itself in long reports 
like a business advertisement, you have evidence of dis- 
ease rather than of health ; you have not that spirit 
which uttered itself so constantly in Christ, " see thou 
tell no man." Nothing but love can fill up and over- 
flow even the measure of duty. Nothing but love 
made Christ upon the roadside in Israel, at Gethsemene, 
and upon Calvary, a possibility. To such love only 
all things are possible. It is the one invincible force. 
It can remove mountains. Oh, the mountains it has 
removed ! Knowing nothing itself of sacrifice, its 
action is spontaneous. Its yoke is easy. Its burden is 
light. God's love ! No man can tell it. Jesus Christ 
is its only perfect expression. 

Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and given 
Himself for us — an offering and a sacrifice to God for a 
" sweet-smelling savor." How such a life would go up 
as an evening sacrifice ! It seems strange the Apostle 
should set before us, so frail, a model so high. And 
yet how strange it would be if he did not. How it is 
we treat all such Scriptures as figurative, and therefore 
unmeaning. What said Christ Himself? " Be ye perfect 
as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Not perfect up 
to your Father's perfection, but perfect as — not perfect 
as the Pharisee was perfect — as the Mahomedan is per- 



310 



SERMONS. 



feet, as any self-righteousness is perfect, but perfect as 
God is perfect, as Christ was perfect, perfect in love. 
" Be ye holy, for I am holy." Love your enemies. 
Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your 
reward shall be great." Read the sixth chapter of Luke. 
Read the Sermon on the Mount. Contemplate Christ 
Himself. Contemplate Heaven — the archangels, the 
cherubim, and seraphim — the beings that have been 
developing there through ages before our world was 
built ; how can we ever dwell with them ? " Your re- 
ward shall be great." Can we then make any sacrifice? 
What are the sacrifices of God ? That which crucifies 
all we do not need. That which develops all in which 
a soul can be rich. You have knowledge^ and impart 
it. The simple act brightens the knowledge you have, 
and magnifies it. You have time. You give it to some 
poor soul that hath no helper. One hour buys for you 
more enjoyment than a life-time of idleness. You have 
money. You take the burden from some poor heart, 
and you find it the best investment you ever made. 
The Apostles gave their lives, and more than any men 
they have gained immortality. They have saved their 
lives. Such are God's sacrifices — the multiplication of 
all good. Such is the mystery of goodness- — such the 
alchemy of love. You read of the day which shall 
manifest the Sons of God. Christ often spoke of it. 
You read of rewards. As sure as we live at all, the 
day will come which shall divide us as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats. Salvation is not a 
fixed quantity. One star differeth from another star 
in glory. 

It is this line of thought, I think, the Apostle wants 
to bring out for us, this higher life, this life of unself, 



CONSECRATION TO GOD. 



311 



of consecration to God. I do not know what to say to 
those of you who have never entered it, not perhaps 
thought much about it. I do not know what life can 
mean to you. The most expressive words of the lan- 
guage, love, eternity, God — the most wonderful facts of 
time, religion, Christ, the cross — what do they mean ? 
Life, death, immortality, do they mean bread and clothes 
and indulgence, and three-score years and ten ? Is that 
all ? Think of these things. Herein is part of the love 
of Jesus. It comes to seek you, to rouse you, to make 
you sensible of your opportunity. " Awake, thou that 
sleepest, and Christ will give thee light." But none of us 
are as sensible as we ought to be. Every day is laying 
great golden chances at our feet and we are trampling 
over them. We are praying every day for a higher 
life, but God will give us Himself, only as we give ourselves 
to Him. That is the law of religion. The measure of 
the divine life in you, is exactly the measure you have 
of this divine life. " Who hath the Son of God hath 
life. Who hath not the Son of God hath not life." 
The measure of the Son of God we have is the meas- 
ure of life we have. " Call me not Lord, if you do not 
the things I say. He that heareth these sayings of 
mine and doeth them builds a house that shall never fall." 
Therefore let us take heed to our alms, to our charities, 
our duties, our labors of love, our time, our whole life. 
Let us be sure that in our giving we reach the giving 
point, the point where we feel we are giving. Let us 
be sure that every day somebody in this world is bet- 
ter off for our being in it. Let us not forget it is our- 
selves, a divine personality this world most wants. That 
is what Christ gave. 6i He gave Himself T That is 
faith to do as He did. That is part of God's love too 



312 



SERMONS. 



that He gave us such a blessing, a being around whom 
our comprehension can fasten, toward whom our affec- 
tions can go out, in whom our hopes can center, whom 
the more we know Him, the more we love Him, and 
with respect to whom, if we have anything to deplore, it 
is that we are so far from Him. May we have grace 
to do as Paul bids us. Be followers of God as dear 
children, not as hired servants. Then so far our prayer 
will be answered. God's Kingdom will come. His will 
be done on earth as it is in heaven. 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 

Job 3: 17. — There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary 
are at rest. 

It has been conjectured by some that since the com- 
position of the book of Job is poetry, no such man as 
Job ever really existed. But whether any man called 
Job ever lived or not, certain it is some man lived 
who had the experiences ascribed to Job, or else such a 
book were impossible. Though it is a book of poetry it 
is very far from being a book of picture, and though we 
may not be in the habit of considering truth generally 
poetic, it is very certain that all real poetry is truth. 

To an unskillful reader, this third chapter of Job pre- 
sents much to shock, perhaps much to offend. Job 
curses the day in which he was born and reproaches 
every agency which lent its aid to give him being. To 
a sensitive mind it all reflects upon the Great Creator, 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 



313 



and our first wonder is how any man, reputed a good 
man, could ever have fallen into such a sin. He envies 
those who had passed into oblivion, and it is of the grave, 
with a longing to be there, he utters the words of the 
text : " There the wicked cease from troubling, and 
there the weary are at rest." 

He whose life has presented no crisis which sends 
him down to the depths of his being, cannot in any pro- 
per sense be called a man. He who in the presence of 
the great struggle, with every faculty of his being under 
tribute to sustain him, has not had thoughts of the vani- 
ty of life similar to those of Job, must have been some- 
thing more, or something less than mortal. The very 
gist of this life is to define to man moral existence, 
to define man to himself, and he knows not himself or 
any man who does not know the darkness and helpless- 
ness inherent in our creature being, who does not know 
God to be the strength and fullness of being, and the 
service of God the sum of all blessing. To know this 
every height and every depth of our whole nature must 
be laid open, and while it is true, the wise shall inherit 
glory, it is also true we can be made perfect only 
through suffering, and so, in the life of all the wise as in 
that of Job, whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and 
because He loves us all, He chastens all. 

This life, thus being to us nothing more than a school, 
or process of preparation for life, our circumstances, 
position and belongings, are no certain indication of 
what we really are. They cannot define a man any more 
than tools can define a workman. Books do not make 
a wise man. An army cannot make a general. At 
best our circumstances, position and belongings only 
define what kind of man we are. It is only character 



314 SERMONS. 

vitalizes life, and the man is written upon his actions 
just as the skill of the painter stands above the colors 
upon the canvas, or the genius of the architect above 
the pile he rears. To know him you must see him in 
combination. For him to know himself he must be 
placed where passion, interest and motive, grapple in 
conflict. There you discover him a selfish man, a craf- 
ty man, a worldly man, a bad man, or you know him, a 
useful man, an honest man, a benevolent man, a holy 
man. A reference to one side or the other, whether we 
are conscious of it or not, works in all our actions and 
in all our estimates of action. In the vigils of the 
night, it is the goodness or badness of a man which 
presses itself upon our ruminating souls. Over our 
grave every friend and every foe, if they have really 
known us, pronounce in the silent convictions of their 
soul our real character. More especially is it the case, 
as years recede, as passions die, as material and decep- 
tive belongings disappear, history, human conviction, 
writes our names upon the page of life, or upon the page 
of death. What did he for his race ? Did he stand 
upon the side of wisdom? Was he a tower of strength 
or only a snare ? Was he a son of God, or a son of the 
devil ? All the vocations, all the pretences, all the 
achievements of man, dwindle him down, or lift him up 
to one or other of these. So, I say, this life is a school, 
a preparation, a probation. 

Its benevolent design in God, was to make us con- 
scious of moral being, to fit us for a higher and a better 
life. It is to take us out of darkness into light, out of 
weakness into strength. At first sight, all nature seems 
to be against us. Every step of our life confronts us 
with some real or imaginary danger. But over and 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 



315 



above the hostility of simple nature, the prevailing con- 
duct of men makes moral existence seem to be based 
upon a series of contradictions, and thus to render moral 
virtues impossible. How can a man be unselfish where 
every man is eager only after his own ? Who can be 
humble, where humility is only another name for being 
trodden under foot? Who can be temperate, where 
every element within us or without us, lures us to in- 
dulgence ? Who can be charitable, where all around us 
is envy, hatred and malice, and all uncharitableness ? 
To lie down, and drift with nature and this world, is 
easy. Men will flatter us when we do as they do. 
They will make that enviable which they consider so 
desirable, and it seems as though the human race had 
conspired to banish real wisdom and holiness from the 
earth. They apply God-given names to things of hu- 
man creation. They admit the existence of virtue, and 
then define what virtue is, and you know that even re- 
ligion itself is a very good thing, provided it is only a 
name. But, let it assume a real shape, let it attempt to 
pull down the vail of sin which hangs as a covering over 
the face of this mortality, and you array against you 
every faculty and passion of man. To all human appear- 
ance, to be wise is certainly to be very foolish, for the 
wisdom of God is foolishness with man; and hence it is, 
all the wise have had to contend at every step against all 
the missiles of contempt and ridicule, or at least, if the 
world does not despise and laugh at them, it assumes 
every attitude of composure and self-importance the more 
condescendingly to pity them. The wicked have never 
ceased from troubling, and this side of absolute glory, 
they never will. 

But these means of grace, otherwise these apparent 



316 



SERMONS. 



hostilities to glorified being, do not stop here. Our dan- 
gers are not only from without, they are also from 
within. When all our faculties unite in what we might 
call self-possession, when our surroundings present a 
fixed and reliable platform, we are to a great extent 
delighted with action. By some means man delights in 
achieving, and we can undertake as readily on God's 
side as any other, provided also the doing w T ill exalt us. 
A great many men never stop to define their action, 
whether it be truly for God's glory, or only another 
phase of their selfishness. Hence, so many works are 
consecrated to God, with which God has nothing to do. 
They are wrought in our pride, and for our glory, and 
the sacred name of God is only a covering to conceal 
a secret selfishness. How many battles are fought 
and very generally applauded, when the truth would 
have more generally prevailed, had there been no battle 
at all. How easy it is to fight, when a crowd of spec- 
tators urge us on ! How easy to long for a great for- 
tune and a great position with which to serve God. 
But the greatness we want, and which this world wants, 
is not that of great fortune or great position, nothing 
after the pattern of our vain plans or hopes. So God 
causes to come in other agencies, realities contingent 
upon our creature nature. They make our plans to fail. 
Hope after hope is laid in the dust. The pride of our 
eyes and lusts of our hearts are removed far away. 
Disease touches these bodies. Paralysis creeps over 
our faculties, and so weary is the flesh, life itself be- 
comes a burden. The very trial we would be spared 
is the very trial sent to us. The very element in life 
which is bitter, is the very element pressed home to our 
lips. Then, like Job, we begin to think life is a vanity, 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 



317 



evil is the day in which we were born. Then, like Job, 
we take to another delusion, and wish very ardently to 
die. You know how common this is, in affliction, in 
weakness, to wish very piously to depart. But what 
of our service to God ! Suppose this is God's will — 
suppose He wishes us truly to know whether we love 
Him for His own sake — suppose there be one more 
speck of selfishness not yet extracted — suppose He has 
some virtue to reveal, the power of His grace, which 
only our helplessness can bring out. Are we willing, 
and while we wait, realize that he who waits still serves. 
While nature asks that the cup shall pass away, shall 
grace exclaim, " Not my will but thine be done." So, 
that while the wicked cease not to trouble, here the 
weary cannot rest. 

This is the design of this life to take us out of dark- 
ness into light — out of weakness into strength— out of 
selfishness wholly into God. He is blessed who is tried. 
Job, in his time, was probably the only man to whom 
his trials could be sent. God, in mercy, sometimes 
does not disturb us. The chastening would only crush 
us, and not bless us. We ought to thank God. He 
does not leave us to ourselves. We ought to pray to 
Him that our life-action be not the resultant of mere 
habit, or position, or restraint; that our neighbor's life 
be not the measure of ours ; that we may not seek our 
own, but only the things of Christ. Then our lives 
would not be ill-defined ; our notions of being would 
not be confused — our hopes of the future would not be 
dim, nor in their nature unreal. It is to be feared when 
we enter the circles of disembodied spirits our whole 
thoughts will undergo revolution, and very much of dis- 
appointment will greet us. Of course no vicious being 



318 



SERMONS. 



can enter Heaven. But neither can we conceive of a 
useless or selfish being there. Heaven is not the abode 
of those who would never have gone there if they 
could have helped it, nor of those who would only go 
there to escape a service elsewhere : nor of those who 
want to go there only in the name of Heaven to narrow 
Heaven down to themselves. Heaven is a place of 
universal service — service transcendently high and sol- 
emn and important — service, the very doing of which 
is reward, and for which only a holy soul is fitted. 
" Then the wicked cease from troubling," that is true ; 
" Then the weary are at rest," that is true ; but, oh, it 
is going home, and home, you know, is not where 
nothing is to be done. It is not inertia, but rest, which 
admits of much action. It is wholly the service of 
love — a service never of restraint or expediency, only 
of the conviction that what serves not God can be no 
exaltation to the creature. It is service only of the 
great and noble, who, out of all the trials and battles 
of life, have proved themselves the sons of God. 

You read in the Bible of Heaven, it is true; but 
what of Heaven ? Does it not sometimes seem strange 
Christ Jesus did not reveal to us more of that land of 
rest ? But does it not, also, occur to you at the same 
time He did reveal all that by any possibility could be 
revealed ? You know no words of ours can portray any- 
thing beyond our experience. If you speak of love, I 
understand you according to my idea of love. When 
a man tells you there is no love in the world, he only 
tells you he never had any. You will observe certain 
symbols are used to illustrate, but only to illustrate ; 
knawing worms, and fires, and stripes represent loath- 
someness and pains beyond which our conceptions can- 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 



319 



not go. Thrones, and songs of triumph, and festal 
joys represent powers and emotions in a degree beyond 
which this sphere furnishes no illustration. 

So, on the other hand, Heaven is oftener spoken of 
with reference to what it is not, than with reference to 
what it is. " There the wicked shall cease from troub- 
ling." " All tears shall be wiped away." " Sorrow 
and sighing flee away." " There is no night there, no- 
thing to deceive or make a lie." Beyond all doubt 
God's moral government is one. All moral being 
is one. We shall have the same universe around us, 
and the same faculties within us. When these bodies 
are renovated and spiritualized there will be joys for us 
through every avenue it furnishes to our souls. Borne 
upon the wings of our volition, other worlds will present 
beauties transcending those of our own, if that were 
possible. There can be no prison-house for the re- 
deemed. God's great nature will outspread in combi- 
nations to charm and electrify the eye. Every element, 
animate or inanimate, will be vocal with a music to de- 
light the ear. Every presentation of every world will 
be the starting point of thought, and mind will dwell in 
all mysteries, because every mystery solved will reveal 
God — highest joy of all the exercise of all holy affec- 
tion. Love will be the one essence of all essences, the 
nectar drop which will sweeten the cup of all being, 
chiefest of all, the love of God. What that means I 
cannot tell. I sometimes wonder whether all prayer 
will cease in Heaven. It seems to me no soul can pos- 
sibly comprehend God, and till it does, no soul can cease 
its longings, and the sweetness of longing seems to me 
the sweetest a soul can know. It will not be a longing 
which will know no gratification. So far from it ? we 



320 



SERMONS. 



shall know more and more of God, but the more we 
know, the more to me it seems impossible we should 
cease to long. Longing will be alleviated by doing 
and acquiring. Hence I say we shall have our work, 
every work with its object and every object combining 
also in it our co-workers. Our love there for the saints 
is not to be a miscellaneous, unmeaning sentiment. It 
is to be general and universal, true — i. e., there will be 
no unlove, no envy, no malice. There will be none we 
cannot love, but it is while general to be also particular, 
e. g., our Saviour was a heavenly being. He loved all 
men. He especially loved His Apostles. He emphat- 
ically loved John, chose him for a closer intercourse 
and a sweeter communion. 

We, too, shall have our kindred and more congenial 
spirits bound to us in every sympathy. I think we 
shall differ there as we differ here. Not all souls will 
possess every characteristic in the same degree. Just 
as we know each other here better than words can 
express, better than our visible features betray, just as 
we select souls here, because of their responsiveness to 
our own, so there we shall have home-spots in our inner 
being for kindred and chosen loves. That home-spot 
will always be theirs. We will never betray them. 
They will never desert us. Think of that ! They will 
understand us. Affection will entwine with affection, 
hope with hope, and purpose with purpose, till revolving 
cycles shall find us almost one. I sometimes think our 
circles there are to be something of our circles here, 
which may be added to but never taken from. The 
thought that we are to know each other in that world, 
admits of no question. Mutual recognition is a neces- 
sity. Every relation we have sustained here is to have 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 



321 



its fruition there. All this is not conjecture. You 
remember when Christ had risen, He had His same 
body, the print of the nails was in His hands, the rent 
of the spear was in His side. When John, in a glorified 
vision, saw the glories of that heavenly world, he saw 
one " like to the Son of Man." That Son of Man to 
John was none other than that crucified Jesus — that 
meek and lowly Saviour. To His people, I believe He 
will always be He who tabernacled with men, who was 
crowned with thorns ; that look of compassion, that 
yearning tenderness, that furrowed brow, they will 
always be radiant with a love which only God could 
know, when He stood transfigured upon the Mount, 
when He assumed a heavenly aspect to commune with 
heavenly beings — He was the same Jesus, only clothed 
in light. Moreover, there met Him, Moses and Elias, 
not persons looking like Moses and Elias simply, but 
Moses and Elias looking as they had looked in their 
mortality. Yes, we shall know each other. Jesus said 
He was going to prepare a place for us, that where He 
was there we might be, and if we are all with Him, 
then we must all be together. Next to the joy of laying 
our crowns at that Saviour's feet and joining in the song 
of the blessed, will be the joy of seeing all, and being 
with our loved ones gone before. Yes, contemplate the 
blessed remains — those sainted mothers, those angel 
babes, those cherished friends ; oh, joys transporting, 
to be with thee, to know no more languishing, no more 
parting, no more shadows to fall across our lives, no 
wicked there to sow discord or trouble, no weary bodies 
to betray us into impatience. We shall be joined to 
ours and they to theirs, generation to generation, circle 
to circle. The saints of all ages will be there, the glo- 



322 



SERMONS. 



rious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of 
the Prophets, the noble army of martyrs, in peace and 
good will ; sorrows all past, wicked all gone, no pur- 
poses thwarted, nobody to offend — Christ Jesus forever 
King, rewards only begun, our works following us, 
reminiscences from this earth will float to us there, kind 
words and holy deeds will live once more. All whom 
we have blessed in the name and for the sake of Christ, 
all who have blessed us, whether we have known them 
or not — mysteries will be cleared up, and this poor 
world will be a poor world no longer. It will have 
given us treasure in heaven. I believe we shall love it, 
love to think of it. It shall be God's world, Christ will 
have been upon it. We shall have been upon it. Here 
we were redeemed, and have learned to call God our 
Father and Christ our Saviour. 

One thing, however, gives us pause. Shall we miss 
none we have loved, over whom we have prayed ? 
Shall we search with no anxiety among all the blessed, 
for one more soul not yet found ? Possibly not. If 
that name be not written upon the Lamb's Book of Life, 
we shall know God knew best. We shall not simply 
submit, but acquiesce in His will. We shall know that 
we ourselves could not love what loved not God. But 
this is what will trouble us. Suppose, with respect to 
that soul we have been delinquent. Suppose, in our 
earth relations, we knew not our privileges as children 
of God. Suppose my worldliness has misled that soul, 
or my neglect has caused it to wander out of the way, 
though saved myself, will there be no regrets ? Will 
no pensive hour creep upon me — no shadow ever rest 
upon my spirit ? Or, when I see the very faithful far 
up in glory, radiant with a light and joy unknown to 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 



323 



me, light and joy of a devotion here in which I did not 
share ; when I look back and realize how good was God 
in putting blessing in my path, from which I turned 
away, because it looked like trial — when I think of the 
poor, and struggling, and careworn, I forgot, just as 
Dives forgot Lazarus, of the children of ignorance I 
might have instructed, of the heathen I might have 
helped to enlighten, of- the hours I might have cheered 
and the homes I might have blessed, of a benedicite 
here and a cup of cold water there. Shall no sigh 
escape me, when I think the opportunities are gone, all 
gone forever ? I know the Scriptures say, sorrow and 
sighing shall flee away, but that means the agencies or 
causes of sorrow and sighing are to flee away. I can- 
not conceive how all regrets are to pass away, for nothing 
dies from the human mind. All memory will live. I 
cannot imagine that Eli can forget his children, or that 
Peter can ever cease to remember how he deceived his 
Lord, or ever recall it with anything but grief. I know 
that no soul in heaven will ever tell me of my fault. 
Oh, no; there will be charity there to cover all my 
faults, and Jesus will forgive — but oh, can I ever forget? 
Oh, brethren, our little animosities and strifes, our bick- 
erings and judgings, our hard thoughts and little selfish- 
nesses, are they to live there ? When we sit down to 
count over our earth pilgrimage will these too come up ? 
Are we even there, among the blessed, to be sometimes 
ashamed, and looking each other in the face, mindful of 
our formalities, insincerity and heartlessness, are we to 
be mantled in humiliation ? I say this troubles me. 
But do not such thoughts as these explain to us much 
of Scripture, much our dear Master told us, much which 
we so often forget ? Do you not perceive how it is, we 



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are to reap as we sow — how it is, in that world one 
star differeth from another star in glory, how heaven 
grows out of, and is consequent upon this earth, and 
how there will be most heaven there, when there has 
been most heaven here ? Do you not understand what 
Christ means, when He says, Lay up for yourselves 
treasure in heaven, when He tells us to watch, to strive, 
to love even our enemies, to govern even our secret 
thoughts, because there is nothing secret which shall 
not be manifested, and nothing hid which shall not be 
revealed ? Do you not see how all deception, of every 
sort or degree, is cheating nobody at last, but ourselves? 
Can you not understand blessed are the pure in heart, 
the meek, the merciful, the hungering and thirsting 
after righteousness ? Can you not see how it is, this 
life of trial, this life of sorrow and sickness, where the 
wicked trouble and the weary cannot rest, is to prove 
that blessed record, " He that now goeth forth sorrowing, 
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with 
joy, bringing his sheaves with him ? Can you not see 
how this life is a strange and solemn existence, how 
every event, or incident, or belonging, is a special provi- 
dence for us, and every providence a golden opportunity? 
What need there is of diligence, vigilance and prayer, 
to walk so that we too may be meet and fit for the 
enjoyment of the saints in light. 

You perceive, then, brethren, the force of what I tell 
you ; this life is a probation — a crucible to test your 
real being. You see how nature and Providence are to 
act upon us ; but, above all, how, as moral agents, we 
are to act upon nature and Providence, and out of the 
elements of e very-day life here to build up a true life 
for the long hereafter. You see that when God asks 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 



325 



us to serve and glorify Him, He asks us to lay up bless- 
edness for ourselves. You see to whom and to whom 
alone that other world is a world of releasement — a 
world of rest. You see the thing for us is not to wish 
to die so much as to be prepared for Heaven. 

Now, these thoughts are peculiarly appropriate to us 
to-day. In the providence of God we are brought to 
the last Sunday of our expiring year, with all its record 
is nearly gone to be registered upon the Book of God for 
us or against us. To review it is a duty ; for, to sum it up, 
is to sum up our whole life. It is only the resultant of 
all that have gone before. I do not ask you what your 
vocation or position in life is. Now, is it a wrong thing 
if, in that vocation and position, you have been dili- 
gent ? The economy of this life is something. It is 
unjust, and the man who has not been faithful in that 
which is less, will never have opportunity to be faithful 
in that which is much. I ask only in your vocation 
and position what are you ? What is the spirit which 
pervades your life and gives you character as a man, 
as a member of society, as a Christian ? Have the 
precepts and example — have the incarnation and the 
passion of the Saviour — has Christ's blessed Gospel 
made you a child of God. In the allotments of Provi- 
dence, have joy and prosperity made you more thank- 
less and selfish — more worldly and thoughtless ? Have 
the losses and adversities, the sorrows and bereavements, 
made you more humble, more submissive, more trustful. 
Pressed at every step by cares, and trials, and respon- 
sibilities, do you realize they are sent of God — that 
He alone is your strength. Or, left in loneliness and 
helplessness, do you feel that Christ is tenfold your 
friend ? Does one holy hope nestle in your heart to-day 



326 



SERMONS. 



which nestled not there a year ago ? Has there been over 
your life this year a halo of sweetness and blessedness 
unknown to other years. In your houses have you 
brought your children nearer to God ? Do they feel 
to-day that you realize how you are only a pilgrim and 
sojourner here — that you are seeking the golden city with 
a longing to be there, and one other longing that they, 
too, in God's time, may come to be with you. In our 
social and civil circles for the young, and ignorant, and 
helpless, does there, by our exertion, prevail one benefi- 
cent influence which last year did not give ? Are our 
means, our talents, our lives, consecrated to God and 
His glory ? And, if men do not know, does God know ; 
are our prayers registered in Heaven ? Have we been 
upon God's side, or upon the side of ourselves only and 
the world ? I think sometimes, when we enter the 
abodes of the blest, the first thing they will ask us is : 
" Where was our post in the great struggle of earth ? 
how speeds the great fight ?" They are waiting till 
this world is wholly redeemed. They are waiting for 
that hour. All that enter there have been soldiers of 
the cross. They have had their battles ; they have 
fallen in the fight, and now they have their story to tell — 
a story of interest to every saint- — because it has helped 
to swell the great victory of the Son of God. Our 
story will soon have to be told. My brother, where is 
thy post ? How speeds the fight so far as your con- 
flict goes ? You see how short the time is ; as you 
judge to-day upon the end of a year, so you will soon 
judge upon the end of this life. In your business you 
can only stand a little longer. In your pleasures and 
estates your name will soon cease to mingle. Christian, 
at your post, whether of doing or suffering, you shall 



THE LONG HEREAFTER. 



327 



soon be relieved. This very year how many have gone 
from us — some leaving us rich memories and blessed 
hopes — memories that lighten our steps along the road, 
and hopes that beckon us on to the bosom of peace and 
of God. It is meet we should remember them, for I 
do not believe they cease to be mindful of us. It is 
meet we should thank God for their good examples, 
and to pray Him that with them we may be partakers 
of His heavenly Kingdom. Let us, then, brethren, 
with such thoughts as these, let us realize what life is, 
that God is over it all ; that our good is designed in it 
all. Let us, brethren, so fill up all our years in all 
holiness, that in our time we go not like one " who 
wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies 
down to pleasant dreams but who shakes off the shad- 
ows of night and wakes to the joys and privileges of the 
eternal day — like him who casts off all dreams and 
wakes to the bright and eternal reality. Our home is 
where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary 
are at rest ; our abode is no longer a tabernacle, but a 
mansion in the golden city, where the saints of all ages 
are — where the throne of the Saviour is — where love 
and peace, and rest, shall reign forever and ever. 



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